Re/presenting Afghans in Hindi cinema: the popular geopolitics of India-Afghanistan relations

ABSTRACT I analyse two Hindi movies shot in Afghanistan - Khuda Gawah (1992) and Kabul Express (2006) - to demonstrate the salience of Hindi cinema as a site where Indian foreign policies are re/presented (presented and re-presented). Accordingly, I have identified two tropes. The first trope, signifying presentation, relates to an ethnic synecdoche in which Afghans are equated with Pathans. The second trope, demonstrating re-presentation, illustrates a deviation vis-à-vis the Indian foreign policies on Afghanistan by way of inserting the enemy Taliban into the moral universe of the cinematic Self. I also discuss select aesthetics of Hindi cinema to show how they can further add to the study of critical geopolitics.