Multimodal Analysis of the Movie ‘Haider’: Portrayal of Muslim Protagonist as a Terrorist

Abstract

Semiotics is the study of the life of signs in the context of social life. Multimodality encompasses more than just spoken discourse including aspects like voice, gestures and facial expression. This theory involves strategies used by semiotic analysis that imply semiotic modes. This study, which is purely qualitative in nature, aims to do multimodal analysis of the movie ‘Haider’ using multimodality theory by Kress and Leeuwen. By using purposive sampling technique, the movie Haider which was released in 2014 is taken as primary data source. The objectives of the study are to examine and analyze the use of content against Islam and the Muslims. The role of Hindutva ideology in negative portrayal, its influence on the Indian audience, on rights of the Muslims and how the Muslims are portrayed in binary position. The findings highlight the use of stereotypes against Muslims. It also highlights practical consequences of such portrayal on the Muslims.