Abstract
The worldwide media attention garnered by the Bo Xilai scandal in China and Anna Hazare’s hunger strike in India in 2011 highlighted a shared frustration with corruption as the two nations entered the Asian Century. This chapter examines the mobilization of state ideology in popular anti-corruption films from China (Fatal Decision, 2000) and India (Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 2006), arguing that they look to assuage the social pains incurred by the increased pace of modernization and globalization by presenting citizens with nostalgic solutions based in the founding principles of each nation. Both films, popular with audiences and the state, avoid a systemic solution to the problem of corruption, choosing rather to focus on individual behavior and conservative nostalgia in the face of an uncertain future.
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Filmography
Fatal Decision (生死抉择). Directed by Yu Benzhong. 2000.
Gali Gali Chor Hai. Directed by Rumi Jaffery. 2012.
Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani. 2006.
Munna Bhai, M.B.B.S. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani. 2003.
No One Killed Jessica. Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta. 2011.
Rang De Basanti. Directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehtra. 2006.
Shikhar. Directed by John Mathew Matthan. 2005.
Stalin. Directed by A. R. Murugadoss. 2006.
The Wolf of Wall Street. Directed by Martin Scorsese. 2013.
Ungli. Directed by Renzil D’Silva. 2014.
Welcome to Sajjanpur. Directed by Sham Benegal. 2008.
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Van Fleit, K. (2018). Mao and Gandhi in the Fight Against Corruption: Popular Film and Social Change in China and India. In: Magnan-Park, A., Marchetti, G., Tan, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Asian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95822-1_15
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