Semiotic analysis of the film ‘Dharm’ The story line of the film ‘Dharm’ follows the life of Pandit Chaturvedi, a highly respected, learned and religious Brahmin, who lives with his wife Parvathi and daughter Vedika, in Benares. His life takes an unexpected turn after he adopts an abandoned baby boy (who was brought into the house by his daughter) and raises him as his own son. The boy, who is named Karthikey, fills Pandit Chaturvedi’s life with joy and happiness. However, this happiness is short lived for Karthikey’s mother returns. It is at this point that Pandit Chaturvedi realizes that he had been bringing up a Muslim boy as a Brahmin. The family is forced by religion to turn the boy away and Panditji spends much of his time trying …show more content…

This film tries to show its viewers that religious fanaticism often paves way to violence and destruction. The film conveys this message by showing the fanatical Hindu’s (Suryaprakash, Dayashankar and the Hindu’s who form the mob) to be the sole reason behind the communal violence in Benares.
Communal violence is one of the major themes addressed in this film. The viewer sees this first through the television news bulletin watched by Paul. Later, this same television announces the death of Paul after he is killed by a group of Hindu extremists. The scene showing Fatima asking Parvathi to take Karthikeya back, the burning of Muslim flags, dead bodies, bloodshed, the strewn flowers on the banks of the river as well as the mob chasing a lone man, are some of the elements used in this film to denote communal violence. The movie focuses on the large group of people who take the name of religion in order to kill people who have different beliefs. By showing several scenes of communal violence, the movie tries to tell the viewers that Hindu- Muslim riots or any other riot in the name of religion is an existing bane in our country. The movie also tries to show the violence that existed in our country at the time in which this film was being shot. (Example- The 2006 bombing in Varanasi).
The dialogues spoken by each of the characters as well as