Seite - 95 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 06/01

Raju, a fast-talking ex-con tour guide in the lake city of Udaipur who befriends then be-loves an unhappily married dancing-girl, Rosie (note the Westernized name), played by Waheeda Rehman. The frame story concerns one man’s journey from worldling to Hindu mukta (spiritually liberated person) through self-renunciation and faith in God and the people; another story is the cost of the modern, fast (read: Western) lifestyle and its attendant morally compromised relationships. Through the course of the film, traditional Indian (read: Hindu) values are valorized, while a dubious eye is cast on upward, debasing, and treacherous materialism. The two nar- ratives culminate in the final scene, when Raju, who has taken on the role of sādhu (Hindu ascetic) as a result of a villager’s misunderstanding, fasts unto death to end a fatal drought. In an ironic twist, the ex-convict becomes the true saint the villagers always believed him to be. Despite protestations to the contrary, the villagers, cog- nizant of their religious history, remind him that the true Hindu sant (holy person) has no proper genealogy: Swami, the path of knowledge is very crooked. Valmiki became a sage after be- ing a dacoit. Goswami Tulsidas cut through the desire for a woman to become a sage. My faith in you has only grown stronger. After getting purified for twelve days of penance, the cry that comes from your soul will tear the skies open and the gods will be forced to cry and wet the earth to the quench the thirst. Raju is hereby challenged to become the savior the villagers so desperately need him to be. As days pass, we witness his ascetical struggle. The vast desert skies remain barren as thousands throng the village temple to do penance and see the “baḍā mahātmā” (super great souled-one). Lines begin to form in order to take his darśan, and Raju’s transformation continues through periodic moments of divine encounter, lingering doubt, enlightenment, and final mahā-samadhī: “These people have put their faith [viśvās] in me”, he tells a laughingly tone-deaf Western reporter. “Now I am growing confident in their faith.” Just before Raju’s death, Gafur, his affable Muslim business partner, discovers that the fasting sādhu is none other than his old friend. Seeking to reunite with his friend, he is rebuffed at the temple entrance as not one of their “khandān”, or fam- ily, a common euphemism for religious identity. Raju steps forward to welcome his old friend, correcting the villager: “Pyār merā dharm hai; dostī merā īmān hai.” (Love is my religion; friendship is my faith.) Significantly, he uses the Hindi pyār for love and the Arabic/Persian īmān for faith, reflecting the inclusive secularist vision for India. Yet just how inclusive is this vision? Moments later, in one of the film’s most poignant scenes, the crowds and the principal actors are seen praying according to their respective traditions for the starving hero. We briefly witness Gafur sitting 94 | Kerry P.  C. San Chirico www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 73–102