This Week’s Major Hindi Films Share A  Common Love For The Rashtra Bhasha(And The BJP Is Pleased)

Irrfan Khan  and Arjun Kapoor are not quite the bummy-chummy comrades of Indian cinema . Irrfan is a stalwart. Arjun is relatively new fresh and eager to learn

But they share a common trait. They both  speak fluent Hindi, and are  proud of it.

Irrfan whose new film Hindi Medium directed by Saket Choudhary  deals with the thorny issue of the obsession with educating one’s children in English medium schools, thinks the slavish fascination with English is a huge  impediment to making national progress.

“I am not saying speaking in English  is  wrong.By all means we should speak English .It is our language asmucha  Hindi. But we must also learn to be equally proud of Hindi.Hota hai yeh ki hum Hindi bolne walon kochota samjhte hain(it so happens that we don’t give respect to those who speak in Hindi).This is wrong,” says Irrfan  passionately.

The entire campaign to promote Hindi Medium was undertaken in Hindi . The actors were instructed to interact as much as possible in the rashtra bhasha.

This week’s other major Hindi release Half Girlfriend also addresses itself to the national pride for Hindi.

Arjun Kapoor who plays the film’s Bihar-born “vernacular’ hero Madhav Jha says he has always been fluent in both English and Hindi, and  proudly so.

He refrains from commenting on his colleagues who take pride in not speaking in Hindi even after years  in the film industry, or boast  about “thinking” in English.

“Without commenting on anyone  else, I’d like to say that thinking and speaking in Hindi comes naturally to me. It should be the same for most of  us in this film industry,” says Arjun.

The fervent salespitch for Hindi in the two films this week has gone down well with the government at the centre.

Speaking enthusiastically on what he hopes would be a trend BJP’s Shatrughan Sinha says, “When I began acting we were told mastering fluent Hindi was a must. Today the youngsters mug their Hindi lines written in English. I think these films that show  a pride in the national language are well worth encouraging.”