Bengal uses Hitler meme to spoof current controversies

KOLKATA: Adolf Hitler surely didn’t know that Kolkatans would someday use his image to hit back at Bengali cinema. A famous scene from the 2004 movie, Downfall, has long been an online favourite. Netizens happily added funny subtitles to portray Hitler’s rant against contemporary political issues, sports, popular culture and daily life. For those with a funny bone, a parody titled ‘Hitler finds out about Byomkesh Bakshi’ has made the cut.The rising popularity of the meme has prompted many to plan similar memes to lampoon not just movies but also everyday issues like the controversy around the Deshapriya Park durga puja idol.
Internationally, the memes, usually titled ‘Hitler finds out...” and “Hitler reacts to...”, have spoofed issues ranging from Sarah Palin’s resignation to the German dictator planning to interrupt Obama’s speech. In all the videos, Hitler’s last ten days in the Berlin bunker from Oliver Hirschbiegel’s movie provides the visual. The audio has Swiss actor Bruno Ganz (as the Nazi dictator) screaming on top of his voice while the subtitles are tweaked around to suit the themes of the ‘Hitler rant’ videos on YouTube. While the ‘Hitler finds out about Byomkesh Bakshi’ spoof seems to be two years old, it has resurfaced in the context of the success of Anjan Dutt’s recent release in the franchise.
Making a personal Hitler video is easy. A link opens up to an online form where one has to enter the title and captions for the video. Beside each scene is placed a text field. The size of the text field matches the length of the corresponding dialogues that need to be entered. In order to upload a video, all one needs is access to a personal YouTube account.
After the release of Kamaleswar Mukherjee’s ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, cinephile Mahadyuti Adhikary used this link to create a hard-hitting spoof titled ‘Hitler and contemporary Bengali cinema’. “The images were pre-set and all I had to do was place relevant words. There was no payment involved in it,” Adhikary said. He is now planning to make a ‘Hitler finds out about Deshapriya Park idol controversy’ video. “I’d want to write dialogues stating how the Pujo organizing committee, on the behest of RSS, had invited Hitler over as their chief guest. But the Russians and Americans had thwarted the plan and co-hatched a conspiracy to stop the Puja,” he said.
Meanwhile, the recent controversy in Delhi over the screening of Utsav Mukherjee’s Bheetu too has incurred the wrath of many. The director was invited to a screening by Delhi’s Bengali Association. Forty minutes into the screening, the secretary-general stopped the screening on the pretext of it being against Bengali culture.
Sayandeb Chowdhury, assistant professor of English at Ambedkar University Delhi, wants this as his subject for a Hitler meme. According to Chowdhury, the essence of the secretary general’s ‘protest’ smacks of rampant provincialism and intolerance. “Hitler is modern world’s most recognizable mascot of intolerance and cultural superiority. Hence his meme could be effectively used to show the gentleman madly trying to defend his (distorted) version of Bengali culture to the obvious astonishment of the others around him,” Chowdhury said.
While the Byomkesh meme makes Hitler mouth common sentiments about Byomkesh films, Chowdhury wants to approach his ‘Hitler gets Bheetu’ video differently. “I want to gladly restore Hitler to his historical role as a bigoted slaughterer of human virtues and lives. To that end, that secretary-general’s reminded us of a Fascist, who without rhyme or reason, would act as a xenophobic marauder. All this in the name of ‘Kaalchaar’!” Chowdhury said.
Baidik Bhattacharya, assistant professor of English, Delhi University, has enjoyed the Byomkesh meme. On his part, Bhattacharya said, “It can be effectively used to hit at growing intolerance and the issue of beef ban as well.”