Directed by Anand Patwardhan • Documentary • 1995 • 121 minutes

FATHER, SON AND HOLY WAR explores in two parts the possibility that the psychology of violence against “the other” may lie in male insecurity, itself an inevitable product of the very construction of “manhood.”

Part 2: HERO PHARMACY examines “manhood” in the context of religious strife. The Hindu majority has been raised on stories of marauding Muslim invaders who raped their women, destroyed their temples, and forced religious conversions. Today, some Hindus demand revenge for crimes committed centuries ago. They reject non-violence as impotence and set out to be “real men.” Meanwhile the Muslim minority – despite fears of genocide, will not take things lying down. They too are driven by the imperative to be “real men.” The result is carnage. Is violence inherent in the human condition? The film invokes pre-patriarchy, not to determine the past, but to imagine the future.