The Kashmir Files’ Is a Manipulative Propaganda Vehicle To Rouse Emotions Against Muslims
Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935), on the Nazi Party congress attended by 700,000 supporters in Nuremberg, is said to be one of the greatest documentaries ever made. It is a masterclass not just in cinema, but also in propaganda, as it shows the idealised version of German manhood – blonde, blue-eyed, fit – and the impeccable organisational skills of Nazi Germany.
Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and was the executive producer. Riefenstahl, who had been an actor in commercial films, was by then Hitler’s favourite director and a great propagandist of the Third Reich. She made another acclaimed documentary, Olympia (1938), on the 1936 Olympics, held to showcase Nazi Germany to the world, where the African American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals and ruined the dictator’s myth of Aryan supremacy. This got her even more worldwide praise and awards for path-breaking film techniques, sealing her place in the pantheon of filmmakers. Through this, she remained an unapologetic propagandist.
In Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the BJP may have found its own Riefenstahl, even if he falls far short of her filmmaking standards. With The Kashmir Files, Agnihotri has become the BJP’s favourite director and its messaging and aesthetics are in full tune with the party’s own, something which is borne out by the full-throated support Narendra Modi and his followers have extended to the film.
