A well-made film can move you. It can inspire, sadden, and enrage. But when a film makes you hate, especially people you have never met or even know about (except for what that film tells you about them), you need to stop and ask why.
If a story about an evil Muslim villain from Delhi committing unimaginable horrors against a valiant Hindu hero from Maharashtra 300 years ago and based on a book written 45 years ago suddenly makes you, a random Hindu from Haryana,fear and hate a random Muslim from Kerala today, you have not just watched a film. You have been reprogrammed.
This is not just storytelling. It is amygdala hijack. Your brain, hardwired for survival, reacts instinctively to fear and anger. Logic shuts down. Rational thought is overridden. You are left with only the Four Fs—fighting, fleeing, feeding, and, well, the one that ensures future generations. These primal instincts drive behaviour, bypassing reason.
The more polished the film, the more powerful the effect. And that is the real danger. Propaganda does not scream. It whispers. It does not instruct. It makes you feel. And once you believe the emotion is yours, you will defend it fiercely.
So, before you walk out of a theatre with rage in your heart, ask yourself who benefits from your anger. Who gains from your hate?
Because if a film can turn history into a weapon, you might just be the ammunition.
