Jana Gana Mana was a thought-provoking socio-political drama that displays incidents that remind us of how the world of the movie is not too different from the world we live in. Here’s a list of the real-life incidents that have been portrayed or depicted in Jana Gana Mana.
Before we start this list, we’d like to thank Sweta (@shwoooohadha on Twitter) for sharing her version of this list with us. So, let’s dive in!
Anti-CAA Protests
In the initial scenes of Jana Gana Mana, we see police charging into a university campus to quell a student protest. This brought back memories of visuals from Jamia Millia that flashed on all our screens during the anti-CAA protests.
Violence at Bangalore University campus
Another incident that comes to mind when you see the scenes of violence on the college campus is that of the lathi charge on ABVP students of Jnanabharati Campus of Bangalore University in January 2022.
Also Read: The Real-life Incident That Inspired Pada
“Look at their clothes”
The VC of the university in the movie makes a remark that sounded very similar to one that our current Prime Minister made in December 2019 at a Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Dumka, Jharkhand. He had said that the people who were protesting violently against CAA could be recognised by their clothes.
Hyderabad Disha encounter case
The fabricated case around Saba Mariyam’s murder and the way in which the four accused meet their maker would’ve reminded you of a case from Hyderabad in November 2019. A young veterinary doctor was kidnapped, gang-raped, murdered, and her body was burnt. Four people were arrested. But all four accused were killed in an encounter. The encounter was discussed and debated at length, much like the one in the movie.
Rohith Vemula
Vidya’s story in Jana Gana Mana is sure to remind you of Rohith Vemula. Rohith Vemula was a 26-year-old PhD student at Hyderabad Central University. He killed himself in 2016 as he was treated like a pariah. In the letter he wrote before he took his own life, he said, “My birth is my fatal accident.”
Also Read: Naaradan: Does The Movie Provide Adequate Social Commentary?
Lynched for allegedly carrying beef
In the courtroom phase of Jana Gana Mana, Aravind Swaminathan makes many references. One among them was about people getting lynched for carrying beef. Since we’ve heard of many cases of cow vigilantism in the recent past, you would’ve been reminded of many similar cases. One among these cases of cow vigilantism was that of a 45-year-old trader from Jarkhand who was lynched by a mob of 100 people on the suspicion of carrying beef in his car.
Nambi Narayanan
Another case that Aravind Swaminathan talked about was that of Nambi Narayanan. Nambi Narayanan was an aerospace engineer who worked for ISRO. In 1994, he was accused of being a spy and selling state secrets to foreign entities. All the charges were dropped after a CBI investigation proved that he was innocent.
Also Read: Malayalam Biopics That Are Worth The Watch
Adivasi man beaten to death
Aravind Swaminathan also talked about an Adivasi man being beaten to death for stealing food. The pictures of the real-life incident are hard to forget – a defenceless man tied up and interrogated. Madhu, a 30-year-old man who belonged to one of the tribes from Attapadi, was accused of stealing and beaten by a group of men. He died in the police jeep while he was being taken to the hospital.
Police brutality
There are scenes of police brutality shown in various parts of Jana Gana Mana. We see Aravind Swaminathan getting beaten up in the prequel montage. Aravind Swaminathan also makes a reference to the death of a father-son duo, P Jeyaraj and J Bennix, due to custodial torture in Tamil Nadu in June 2020.
Chumbana Samaram
In Dijo Jose Antony’s cameo, he takes a subtle dig at the Kiss of Love protests of 2014.
And that is our list of real-life incidents depicted in Jana Gana Mana.
One Response