#PHIR BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI TV#
What they believed to be the truth was a lie all along, fabricated by the Government, and propagated by the media. They have been fooled, turned into bloodthirsty jingoists in the name of patriotism, waiting in front of their TV sets to watch the live hanging of a ‘terrorist’ like it is a reality show. In the climax, when protests break out in the streets of Mumbai, they are shown as a sort of last resort, when people must come together and exercise their democratic right and try and stop something wrong from happening, something that threatens the idea of India. Bakshi’s father, who was a freedom fighter at the time of independence, gently mocks his son for a lack of principles. Even our protagonists Ajay Bakshi (Khan) and Ria Banerjee (Chawla) are a cog in the wheel of the same machinery, happy to help it turn as long as they get their promotions and gifts and advance their respective careers.
The owners of the two news channels are businessmen with no journalistic ethics. The politicians are evil in a matter of fact way. A farce about the commercialisation of news, particularly TV news, and its unholy nexus with the establishment, this was Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro territory, cloaked in the sheen of a glossy Shah Rukh Khan entertainer, trying to marry the middle class sensibilities that had marked Mirza’s earlier films such as Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992) with its leading man’s newfound superstardom. A flop upon its release, Aziz Mirza’s Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani unleashed a plot involving a framed terrorist, State propaganda and a citizens uprising on an unsuspecting audience who must’ve gone expecting 90s vanilla starring Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla.