Nation, family and trauma: techno-nationalism and conflicts of loyalty in the Indian Hindi-language espionage thriller Mission Majnu

The Indian Hindi-language espionage thriller Mission Majnu is set in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its central character is Amandeep Ajitpal Singh, an Indian spy who adopts the guise of Tariq to conduct a covert operation to uncover Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. The film is shown both as encoding a nationalist message through various plot devices and contributing to audience willingness to absorb this message through its supposed authenticity. On a macro-level, there is an othering of Pakistan alongside a presentation of the selfless patriotism of the brave agents of India's intelligence services. In highlighting the latter, it also presents a celebratory techno-nationalism. Yet in interweaving personal and national stories and traumas the film also presents a reading of how Indian covert operatives navigate their personal and professional lives and their relationship to the state they serve. In examining the tensions between loyalty to family and to nation, the film also centres a leitmotif of national belonging as a test, a test that Amandeep sacrificially passes.