First things first.
Why there is a controversy around the Aamir Khan starer movie "PK"?
Some people are saying that the controversy is because Aamir Khan is a Muslim
and yet he led this movie which appears anti-Hindu. But I think the protest is
because every time the Indian movie makers target only Hindus and Hinduism.
Controversy is not because of Khan's surname or religion - which some of us
conveniently assume because it is easy to counter in debates. And the movie
makers do it not to make any changes in the society but to make money. I don't
know why we should encourage ridiculing only one particular religion in the
name of making money.
If the movie industry
was conscious about removing superstition etc - why do they produce
ghost-movies one after the other? They show ghosts, vampires, souls, bhoots etc
as if these really exist. So what is wrong if some cheats come up and claim to
provide protection against such things which are reinforced in our mind by the
movie industry?
And btw, I read
Aamir's statement in the news where he was replying to the protesters. He said,
"If you don't like the movie, don't watch it!" How hypocritical? Can
one really 'like' or 'dislike' a movie without 'watching it'? And once one has
watched it and disliked it, can one go back in time to 'unwatch' the movie?
They have not even started the scheme of 'get refunds for your movie ticket if
you dislike it after watching it'!
Throughout the promo
phase, they kept showing us cute little Alien Aamir, sleek Anuskha, cheeky
Sushant - moving around in the background of very nice songs! People went to
watch these and what do they find? Rajkumar Hirani's personal tirade against
Hindu Gods and Hindu Godmen? Come on! At least be honest during the promos!
I think govt should
control the way these greedy movie makers do promo of their films. I am sure if
they highlighted that PK was a tirade against "Hindu Gods and Hindu Godmen"
- it won't have been this much successful... So are not pk-makers unethical in
misguiding the viewers?
The manner in which
such movies are being made, it appears that the movie makers want us to get
provoked. Perhaps so that it makes "news" and controversy and so that
they can call us stupid and generate more news and controversies... Otherwise
they won't have released Aamir's nude picture so many weeks in advance and
tried to cook up all controversies, nominating Salman to do the dare of getting
nude and all...
In Hinduism we have
long tradition of self-criticism and social reforms. Genuine criticisms are
alright and necessary. But as I said, these movie makers are only interested in
money and target one religion more liberally than others because "they can
get away with it" easily. And they do get away with it each time with more
money than their previous movie. And we keep clapping at their
"noble" intentions while their bank balances laugh at us.
Some people who are
supporting this movie call themselves rational thinkers and accuse the
protesters as blind believers. But logically it appears that:
Rational thinking –
people who question the intent of the movie-makers are doing rational thinking;
they are daring to question.
Blind Belief – people
who think movies are made to do social and religious reforms; they don’t
question the movie makers but indulge in full blind faith that intention of all
movie makers should always be noble.
Now we come to an
important part - what things in the movie offend us?
I read that the movie
shows a person dressed as Lord Shiva is chased in the toilets, underneath
chairs and tables, near people's feet and his rear is shown in awkward
position. Can you tell if people dressed as other religions' gods, goddesses and
messengers are also shown being chased in this manner too in this movie?
Someone said how is
it different from the Raam Leela programs where at some places the person
playing Hanuman ji's role goes around collecting money from people. I think the
difference is in "intention" of the organizers. Ram leela and other
events spread the religious message apart from protecting culture. Therefore
Lord Hanuman's character is not seen in negative light there; even if he
collects money as daana - accepting daana is not considered negative. Still in
Raam leela also Lord Hanuman's character won't be abused in the manner done in
the movie right? Now compare that with this movie and intention of the movie
makers. They make movies to the ultimate goal of making money. Therefore
insults done to Lord Shiva's character is not similar to anything done in Raam
leela etc.
Some people said that
it mentions why we need to give money in order to see God's idol in temples? I
ask in which temple do we "need to give money to see god's idol"? I
know we can buy tickets to reach there faster than others; we are asked for
donations also; but do we really "need to give money"? Did the movie
name any particular temple or did it only make a false statement which we did
not question?
The controversy was
primarily because the movie was reported to be more charitable towards (or
against) one particular religion and its gods than being equal towards all. You
can search what Taslima Nasreen said about Aamir and this movie - to get a
sense of rage in some people and its reason. The bottom line of accusation is
that the movie makers were "biased".
Have I watched this
movie? I wanted to and was planning to watch it assuming it to be a cool movie
just like its promos and songs but when it turned out that its bottom-line was
"do not believe in fake godmen" I thought why to waste Rs 200 to get
this message when I have had already gotten this message so many times before?
So I did not watch it. As you would have noticed, I have been discussing about
religion more than the movie so far on BB - that was for some reason.
A Faking News asked
why good aliens come to India? I think if PK were a bad alien and yet
criticized religion - the movie won't make 200 crores... PK had to to appear
like a cute little pet in order to win our hearts and if it did not win our
hearts then how could it hurt our sentiments? :) Its because of Aamir's
philosophy "Dil pe lagegi tabhi baat banegi".
Also, a question
arises why so many educated people support this movie and do not empathize with
the protesters? I think the problem is that we want to remain bound by all
sorts of things except religion. We want to be slaves to social confirmation
(clothes we wear; phones we buy etc); we are okay to be bound by employers
rules (like dress code; protocols etc); okay to obey our parents and spouses
and kids; but only we want not to be bound by whatever religion says... Because
religions tell nice things which appear uninteresting; so we fear that we shall
be labeled boring people - so we all must criticize religion for the sake of
appearing modernist and urban individuals...
© Rahul
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Also read on the same topic: http://khabrii.com/a-hindus-open-letter-to-amir-khan/
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Also read on the same topic: http://khabrii.com/a-hindus-open-letter-to-amir-khan/
