Berate Salman Khan, but Sultan is a boon for Indian Muslims

True to his yearly Eid ritual, Salman Khan has graced theatres to elicit seetis, chants, and applause from cinegoers. However, owing to vehicular and verbal mishaps, he justifiably elicits contempt as well.

After Mr Being Human compared his physical condition to that of a raped woman during the Sultan schedule, digital wordsmiths appealed to "progressive, educated Bhai fans" to not fill his box office coffers, through boycotts and repudiations.

Albeit the overall validity of those pleas, one cannot help but laugh at the simplistic reasoning that Salman caters solely to illiberal, non-sophisticated folks.

Few understand why audiences flock to theatres every Eid despite their beloved Bhaijaan's sins. That is another long case study in itself.

Also read: Things I learnt watching Salman Khan's Sultan

However, there is another group with whom the controversial star resonates.

Sallu Bhai's connection with Muslims of all social strata is no secret. While his mixed religious leanings confuse every Ram, Rahim, and Robert from Herat in Afghanistan all the way to Hyderabad, Salman's on-screen projections of his partial Islamic identity are far from stereotypical.

I say this because popular culture has reduced the Indian Muslim to certain caricatures; some for better or worse are grounded in reality.

Also read: Neither SRK nor Aamir; Salman is undisputed Sultan of box office

They include the old taxi driving chacha who moonlights as an Urdu maestro at mushairas/mujras and the Pathani kurta-wearing gangster.

If screenwriters feel generous with the latter, the mobster will instead be a flamboyant, Cartier sunglasses-clad Middle East-based don.

And the AK-47 wielding mullah has been done to death, sometimes in the most hilarious fashion.

The in your face alternative depictions are just as brazen. Is the "tolerant" Muslim the one who drinks and marries outside his/her religion?

To a slightly lesser degree, pseudo-secular media elites paint meat-eating Hindus with monotheistic spouses as the sole alternatives to the saffronising Bhakts.

Also, how many times did Karan Johar have an Indian-American character pound his chest while uttering, "My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist?"

Despite the best intentions sometimes, do such counter-narratives lessen the chest-thumping overtones of identity politics found in films?

No because they neglect to show that there is more to Indian Muslims than their faith and poetic language.

For the first nuanced, non-stereotypical portrayal of the Indian Muslim, we have to go back to 2002 when Salman essayed the role of Veer, an amnesiac who later discovers that his real name is Ali.

Against the backdrop of a larger suspense plot, the return to his Islamic roots is well handled with a peppy Eid song that extols genuine tolerance, the occasional use of phrases like "Mashallah" and "Ya Ali madad", and mosque sequences that are not unnecessarily prolonged.

The sheer subtlety minus chest thumping was the beauty of Tumko Na Bhool Payenge.

Fourteen years later, the prospective Rs 500 crore hit Sultan has revived this elegant narrative and that is hopefully here to stay.

The movie does not try to veil theological debates with filmy dialogues. Nor does it preach whether so-called "moderate Muslims" are allowed to consume certain beverages.

Although Salman's character Sultan Ali Khan does politely refuse a drink at a nightclub before crooning the soulful song "Jag Ghumeya", did Sultan's teetotaling refusal imply that he was the finished product of an extremist assembly line in a madrasa factory that manufactures terrorists?

Absolutely not.

And Anushka Sharma is not relegated to the sidelines as an educated, formidable wrestler who does not don a burqa when venturing outdoors. Nevertheless, arguments can be made for or against the feminist attributes of her character Aarfa Hussain.

Either way, such a forward-thinking Muslim woman are very rare nowadays.

So boycott Bhai all you want but Sultan is a breath of fresh air for Indian secularism, on celluloid at least.

That too, when screens (big and small) rather than actual realities form the basis of people's worldviews.