The paradoxical use of Bhakti poetry in Sandeep Vanga films

Shreyas Pande analyses the use of Kabir’s poems in films that are largely toxic

In the recently released teaser of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’, the character played by Ranbir Kapoor says a couplet of Kabir midway through. It is a moment just before mass violence is about to take place. The couplet reads, ‘Bura jo dekhan mai gaya, bura na miliyiya koyi, jab mai aapo dekheya, mujhse bura na koi.’ (When I started looking for evil around me, I didn’t find any. However, when I looked within myself, I found that I am full of evil).

Similarly, his earlier film ‘Kabir Singh’, begins with a popular couplet of Khusrau that speaks of drowning in divine love. This is followed by another couplet of Kabir that speaks of how life crumbles on everyone with its hardships. The inherent ‘ras’ of these poems belongs to the Bhakti and Sufi traditions, which promote love as a form of divine worship. It is tender, humane, and stands away from the violent tendencies shown by religious extremists. However, they lose their meaning and find completely newer ones when appropriated by director Sandeep Reddy Vanga for the world of his stories.

Values given by poets like Kabir and Khusrau are about finding your authentic self by staying away from outer inhibitions. It asks for surrender, of becoming one with your true being. Many scholars have written about how there is a certain femininity with which Kabir and others express their devotion to God. Kabir exhibits a feminine tenderness and appearance when surrendering to his god. There is a complete dismissal of traits of arrogance, greed, and apathy. Whereas, the protagonists of Sandeep Reddy Vanga are often violent exhibiting certain toxic traits.

‘Kabir Singh’ believes in the idea of love, where he seems to be the owner of his partner and acts in such ways. He chooses the partner; he pushes himself into her life, and there is hardly any complaining from her side. She is not given the agency to be in touch with her reality. Seeing the film open up with a boundless idea of love and then moving to a version that is skewed with various hyper-masculine notions, it feels like a complete disjoint from the spirit of Bhakti. Kabir Singh and Sant Kabir can never coincide. If Kabir Singh were to internalise the essence of Bhakti poetry, he would cease to be the way he is.

Sandeep Reddy Vanga infuses toxic masculinity into the formless ideas of Kabir. In ‘Animal’, it is the alpha male tendencies that are pumped up when the couplet is voiced out. With its meaning changed because of the context, the couplet loses out on its essence. It gives more of a boastful feeling than that of modesty. It is no longer exhibiting the qualities that Kabir wants to bring forth. Rather, it is unleashing the inner violence of Arjun Singh (Ranbir’s character in Animal), flying on the carpet of Sant Kabir’s verse.

It is rather uncomfortable to find Kabir and Khusrau in the world of Sandeep Reddy Vanga, for there seems to be no resonance between what the poets felt and what Vanga feels. Neither do the lines deposit a rich layer in the themes, nor do they elevate their effect. The words of Khusrau, while aimed at creating a base for how Kabir Singh is going to function in the film, only end up furthering toxic masculinity. The sacrificial nature of Khusrau’s devotion takes a superficially toxic turn in Kabir Singh. Vanga’s sincerity in associating hyper-violent meanings with popular folk poetry remains paradoxical. Doing so only strengthens such behaviour, and the original loses out on its otherwise rich essence.