Fatima Bhutto, the granddaughter of ZA Bhutto, has said that the Bollywood film “Pathan” is an attempt to “provide cover” for BJP’s gross violations of human rights in India held Kashmir, followed by the abrogation of article 370 of the Indian constitution. 

According to the 24NewsHD TV channel, Fatima Bhutto has deconstructed India’s obsession with Pakistan, reflected through its many films, including Razi, Uri, and most recently, Mission Majnu and Pathaan.

“If recent Bollywood films are any indication, it is fair to say that India’s film industry is obsessed with Pakistan.” 

Taking to Twitter, she penned,” If you're cheering Pathaan - a film set against the backdrop of the abrogation of Article 370 which set off a wave of repression against Kashmir - then the project of making nasty politics fun, glamorous and set to music is working.” I was not impressed, she added. 

https://twitter.com/fbhutto/status/1621426783747805184

She remembered Pathaan opening in Lahore with a Pakistani general objecting to Modi’s Article 370 pullout. The general contacts a psychotic terrorist to “throw India to its knees” in his final years. “Pathaan’s premise is absurd, and no one wears many clothes as they dance in bikinis and shorts striving to save India and, hence, the world,” writes Bhutto. “It is naturally unconcerned with facts—Article 370 was the tool that allowed Kashmir’s ascension into the Indian union; if it is declared null and void, Kashmir’s ascension to India is also null and void.” Why care about facts or Kashmiris’ opinions? “This vapid film has none,” she says.

“Homicidal maniacs” and “valiant government operatives with pectoral muscles” are shown in the film, according to the New Kings of the World writer. Bhutto says, “To bring up an event such as the degradation of Kashmir as a pleasant story point is beyond terrible.” Bollywood can’t set Modi’s quasi-fascist BJP’s political objectives to entertaining music and helicopter acrobatics.  

Fatima Bhutto also criticizes Shah Rukh Khan, India’s largest Muslim star, for not criticizing Modi’s government, which is “globally recognized for its anti-Muslim persecution after depriving Muslims of their citizenship.” “Admirers of Modi’s BJP and its politics slaughter Muslims, capturing their terrible executions on cell phones to distribute around WhatsApp as viral trophies,” she said, recalling the foreboding National Registry of Citizenship Act, which branded 700,000 Indian Muslims, unlawful immigrants.

Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday tweet was shared by the writer. “Thank you for caring for our nation and its people. “Quite a thing to wish for a man who allegedly oversaw the deaths of 2,000 Muslims and the systematic rape of hundreds of women in Gujarat during the 2002 riots,” Bhutto said.

She criticized Bollywood for its “nasty” representation of Pakistanis and Muslims, naming several films. “January also saw Netflix release Mission Majnu, a lacklustre drama about Indian spies discovering Pakistan’s nuclear program,” she adds.

Fatima Bhutto praises Pakistan for making films on “trans love stories, feminine desire, and the corrosive societal power of patriarchal fundamentalists” and music that questions borders. “Double weird, where culture is no longer used to extend dialogue but rather to suffocate it,” she says of India. 

She wrote in the international media that if the films were smarter or more daring, Pakistan might be flattered. Instead, we are beginning to be mildly confused by all the attention. She further criticized that even though our common neighbour China has taken – without too much of a struggle and aided by a helpful press blackout in India – 38,000 sq km of Indian land in Ladakh, on which they are building homes and bridges, you won’t find any Bollywood films with Chinese villains or bad guys. No, all the nasties in Indian cinema are Pakistanis, usually wearing military uniforms, and always Muslim.