Lok Sabha polls 2019: Sunny Deol's 2.5-kg hand hangs off a '56-inch' chest

Campaigning in Gurdaspur, Punjab, Deol's fame pulls cheering crowds even as his speeches are just disjointed snatches of film dialogue

It is 8 am at Gurudwara Barth Sahib and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP's) Gurdaspur candidate Sunny Deol is scheduled to start off his day's campaign after paying respects at the shrine. While the actor and first-time contestant is not to be seen anywhere, there is a posse of over 50 Punjab police personnel, a sniffer dog, a three-member Election Commission of India (ECI) video surveillance team and a handful of BJP supporters assembled outside the Gurudwara.

It is not until 10:20 am that Deol makes an appearance surrounded by ten Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team personnel of Punjab police. Dressed in a white Kurta Pyjama and sporting a blue turban, Deol, already two hours late, pays a 10-minute visit to the shrine before being escorted out to a waiting Range Rover with a sunroof on the front passenger side. Deol peeps out of the Range Rover and waves to the crowd while driving out to the highway.

Deol gives a speech peppered with film dialogues at Jangal village. Photo: Sai Manish

By the time Gurudwara Barth Sahib is left behind in the roar of dust and diesel of Deol’s convoy, consisting of two police buses, SWAT team vehicles, SUVs of support staff and local BJP leaders, the actor disappears into his SUV for a couple of minutes. Before hitting the highway, he re-emerges from the sunroof metamorphosed. Quite like a costume change on movie sets, the veteran actor has discarded his turban for a baseball cap. Also gone is the kurta pyjama donned at the Gurudwara. It has been replaced by a pink shirt with sunglasses to match. Deol transmogrifies from a devout turban-sporting Sikh to the Bollywood actor the world knows him as. Over the next six hours, Deol would display the following — an inability to stitch together coherent sentences, speaking to crowds in dialogues with special invocations of his “2.5-kg” hand and overt reliance on nationalistic chants in line with his party’s national election strategy.

 

The first stop of the convoy is in the village of Kanwa in Gurdaspur district of the state where people have left all work to get atop their roofs and line the streets to catch a glimpse of the actor. Before Deol has entered the village, a mobile music van has moved into the village and is blasting dialogues from his war movie Border and partition-era movie Gadar. There is another mobile “DJ Van” that moves with the convoy and blasts BJP’s campaign songs eulogising Narendra Modi “as the saviour of India.”

Crowd at Deol's speech in Gharota village. Photo: Sai Manish

Deol is prompted by his election team about the crowd gathered ahead and he pops out of the sunroof waving at people and shaking hands. Deol doesn’t utter a word to people around, nor does he get down once from his vehicle to interact with people he waves at. Adding to the effect at Kanwa is the mobile music van in the convoy which now blasts Deol’s trademark hyper-nationalistic dialogue “Doodh maangoge toh kheer denge, Kashmir mangoge toh cheer denge” (If you ask for milk, we will serve you porridge. But if you ask for Kashmir, we will rip you apart). The crowd goes ballistic. As the convoy makes its way to the next few villages, young men on motorcycles waving BJP flags join the convoy and lead the way.

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Deol’s time to deliver a speech arrives an hour later in the village of Gharota. A stage has been set up in the local market square. The venue is brimming with locals. He speaks for a minute and barely a cohesive sentence. He speaks in Hindi. Yet the crowd cheers wildly when he mutters his most famous dialogue – Yeh dhai kilo ka haath jab kisi pe padta hai toh who uthta nahin, utth jaata hai (When this 2.5-kg hand hits someone, he does not only fail to rise, he dies). Deol has nothing to say about his vision for the people of the constituency. A part of Deol’s ramblings includes the following “Main asli desh bhakt hoon. Isiliye aap mujhe vote zaroor dena” (I am the real nationalist. So please vote for me). It is left to former BJP MLA Seema Kumari, accompanying Deol, to do all the talking in Punjabi.

At the next stop at the village of Jangal, Deol is delivering yet another speech — the only time during the day when he will be delivering back-to-back speeches. The arena is packed yet again with local villagers swarming to catch a glimpse. The actor is heavily blocked from direct contact with anyone by a human chain of SWAT officers. It seems Deol’s lack of Punjabi as a potential weakness was communicated to him and this time he conjures up some words in Punjabi. The “2.5-kg hand” dialogue is again delivered and a couple of young boys in the front row cheer him up saying “Oye Tara Singh” – a reference to his much popular character in Gadar. A middle-aged woman, when asked about how convincing Deol is, says: “You never know which side people vote will. He has little experience as a politician. But he is a great actor.”

A villager approaches Sunny Deol for an autograh at Fatehpur village. Photo: Sai Manish

It’s almost noon when Deol’s convoy reaches the village of Tango Shah, where an enthusiastic mob greets him. Deol waves to people and as his convoy leaves the village, young men bring riding pillions on bikes their female family members who previously missed the spectacle, and they race ahead to catch up with Deol’s SUV. When a couple of starry-eyed women in the village are reminded of his inexperience, they retort: “So what? He will definitely learn. We will vote for him. The late Vinod Khanna had no experience when he was elected. But he did a lot for us.”

It’s almost 1 pm and the actor prepares for another speech at Begowal village. As the sun rises higher and the heat becomes intense, Deol’s hyperventilated nationalism and dialogue delivery assume new dimensions. Deol starts off his speech with “Jai Shri Ram”, “Sat Sri Akal” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.” Then, in a fit of exuberance, he exhorts the crowd “to punch the lotus symbol on the electronic voting machine when you see one.” He ends his speech saying, “I want to be yours. I want you to accept me.” The crowd goes into a tizzy and cheers him wildly. And yes, Deol doesn’t forget to deliver the dhai kilo ka haath dialogue here either.

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Heading towards the village of Narot Jamail Singh, one crosses the bridge built over the Ravi river at Kathlou. A local man in his 40s shares a tale: “This bridge was built only because of Vinod Khanna. For many years, villages on either side of the river didn’t arrange marriages with each other because it was dangerous for the marriage procession to cross the broken bridge on the river. People didn’t even trade their agricultural produce. It’s only because of Khanna that this backward area showed some progress. People in border areas aren’t as rich as those in other parts of the state. Any visiting film star excites them. There is no reason why people won’t vote for Sunny Deol.” His companion chips in: “College-going boys and girls will surely vote for him.”

A few miles after crossing the bridge comes the village of Narot Jamail Singh, where Deol and his team meet people and wind up for lunch. His security keeps an impenetrable ring around him and his public relations, unlike a local politician’s, is handled from Mumbai. While Deol rests for lunch, one of the music vans in the convoy has moved to the village of Fatehpur, where Deol will meet people after an hour-long lunch break. It blasts popular songs from Deol’s movies building up for his arrival. It’s almost 4 pm and locals have been waiting in anticipation of his arrival for an hour in intense heat. The moment finally arrives. A young man rushes towards the SUV for an autograph and two others flash their mobile phones to capture the moment. Deol obliges. A few metres down the road at the village square, a bigger crowd awaits. The music van blares out ‘the Modi song’ for the waiting crowd. Deol gets a loud cheer as he approaches the crowd at Fatehgarh.

This might look like the birth of a politician, but it might just be the re-birth of an actor — this time, his 2.5-kg hand hanging of someone’s 56-inch chest.