The Muslim Modern Genre

Abstract

The previous three genres (Muslim Historical, Muslim Social, and Muslim Political) identified films that dealt with the liminality of the Muslim Other in the national space by stereotyping Muslims or striving to integrate the Muslim Other into the normative Hindu self. After 2005, mainstream films shifted away from traditional depictions of Muslims as ‘enemy’ or ‘aliens’ to one in which Muslims were gradually portrayed as ‘pleasant’, ‘sensible’, and ‘secular’ human beings. The Muslim Modern genre moves away from the clichéd portrayal of Muslims in older popular films and moves towards one in which Muslims are presented as ‘good’ and ‘ordinary’ human beings who face everyday issues and challenges. This chapter looks at adopting modernity as a philosophy that implies ‘a break with tradition’ rather than a particular historical period. The chapter argues that there is a discontinuity of Muslim representational patterns in the contemporary era because the key Muslim characters are shown without the Islamicate ethos imprinted on them. Muslims are now frequently depicted as ordinary people with mundane dreams or dealing with daily issues. They do not carry any extra baggage of their religious identity but they are very often compelled to show their loyalty to the government or their innocence with regards to crimes against the state.