DEPICTION OF MINDLESS VIOLENCE IN MOVIES
AUGUST 11, 2023
The unbelievable violence depicted in Indian movies, especially Telugu ones, is a matter of serious concern for the responsibilities of our filmmakers. The common refrain for such beyond comprehension violence, of course, is that “art imitates life”. However, the kind of violence shown in our movies, especially with the ‘superstars’, ‘celebrities’, and ‘legends’, has an absolute disconnect with either urban or rural life. It is gory and ruthless, and it points to an absolute lawlessness in the land. Mass murders using weapons of the most imaginative kind are a terrible insult to the entire culture and the administration of the land. However, the reverse of “life imitating art” definitely happens. A society where peace and respect for the law need to ingrain themselves deeply now finds justification for its abnormal behavior through these movies. One cannot justify, in any healthy society, highly paid stars glorifying crime and violence the way they are doing it in their movies. The movie makers are not transmitting entertainment, values, or information to society but only perversions with the sole purpose of making money. Art, perhaps for its own sake, seeking the ultimate, has been the driving force of Indian culture. Such grand definitions of art bear no meaning today in our society. However, in these troubled times, art has a huge responsibility towards society, and movies are simply the most popular and effective in impacting society. Thus, the great power inherent in it calls for a greater responsibility towards society and culture. Can we, as a first step, tone down the mindless violence and absolute lack of values depicted in our movies?
ADIPURUSH AND THE ATTACK ON HINDU CULTURE
JUNE 21, 2023
Adipurush movie writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla, in a video from five years ago, reveals that adding the name Muntashir brought changes to his persona. He started countering the Shiv Stotra chant of his priest father with verses in praise of Islam in a loud voice. This is not surprising and shows the deep problem of secularism in our country. For European Christendom, at a specific point in its history, secularism became a solution for harmony when the various denominations were fighting each other. Secularism separated the Church from the state. However, it could not be a universal solution across time and space, as Europe struggles with the influx of Islam today. It was also inapplicable to non-Christian cultures like India, where the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘secular’ deeply intertwine and their separation is actually a ridiculous proposition. Secularism for India, an inappropriate application of western solutions to India, now comes to mean abusing the majority, appeasing the minority, and converting our highest philosophical insights into ‘religious’ thoughts (to be shunned or abused). With such writers, no wonder Adipurush was a deep strike on Indian culture.
K VISHWANATH- A GREAT AMBASSADOR OF INDIAN CULTURE
FEBRUARY 3, 2023
The death of PadmaShri K Vishwanath ends one of the most glorious chapters of Indian cinema. In a cinematic era constantly diverging from our traditions and culture across the country, Vishwanath’s films, firmly rooted in the best of what Indian culture could offer, came as a cool invigorating breath of fresh air. Each film of Vishwanath was a classic and the songs in each film remain etched for posterity in golden letters. His contribution to cinema is far greater than anybody probably acknowledged and he stands right at the top along with other giants like Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, and V Shantaram. His packaging of serious messages in a popular format which a person of any age could enjoy and appreciate is perhaps his unique contribution to the cause of Indian cinema with few parallels. It is a remarkable achievement that he could combine the so called ‘art’ and ‘commercial’ formats of cinema into a single mould. Each Telugu person might have a favourite movie or song of K Vishwanath. Sankarabharanaman might be common to all but my personal favourite is a movie called Swathi Kiranam where Mammooty gives one of the most brilliant performances of his life as a music maestro who gets jealous of his prodigious disciple played by a young Manjunath. The movie, the songs, and the direction represents the best of Vishwanath. His legacy can never die and we hope some of the present generation of directors take inspiration from his kind of films which never derooted and deracinated Indians.
THE MISCHIEVOUS BBC
JANUARY 23, 2023
Tariq Mansoor, Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, has written a rebuttal in a national newspaper to a recent BBC documentary which raked up the ghost of 2002 Gujarat riots and Modi’s alleged involvement. He uses the phrase “white media’s burden” like the previous “white man’s burden” which gives them the self-acquired authority to create any discourse against an individual, person, or even a country they hold biases against. As he points out, the series shows utter contempt to the Indian judiciary which has investigated the matter at all levels and in great depth to give a clean chit to Modi. Is the BBC above India’s judiciary? Secondly, despite this continuing agenda, the people of the country have voted for him overwhelmingly in two elections and three times previously in Gujarat. Most importantly, he says the perception of Modi is not as negative amongst Muslim community as the media or the BBC would like everyone to believe. These narratives only perpetuate the Muslim victimhood story which vested interests are extremely eager to exploit for their own gains. It is also amazing to see how the Muslim world is engaging much better with Modi’s India.
The BBC represents the old colonial mindset which cannot now see a previously colonized nation doing much better than them. How much has the BBC focussed on the terrible colonialism which plundered the world and especially India? The British Raj systematically subverted each of the state machinery tools, like armies, censuses, bureaucracies, railroads, hospitals, telegrams, and scientific institutions to its profit by plunder and manipulation. In the entire 107 years from 1793 to 1900, an estimated 5 million people died the world over in all the wars combined. But, in just 10 years 1891-1900, 19 million people died in India due to famines alone. The famines were the biggest colonial holocausts and are right at the top of some of the most brutal inhumanities in modern times. These resulted from careless planning, Malthusian ideas, and highly racist leaders sitting in England. Churchill’s role in the 1943 Bengal famine places him right next to Hitler as a war criminal. The BBC would do well if it looked at Britain’s own history.
The BBC is a continuing colonial agenda. It becomes extremely important for anyone concerned for India, irrespective of political affiliations, to shun such divisive narratives and call its bluff. However, the decision to ban the documentary was a thoughtless move. Such bans rarely work and only strengthen the opponent’s position. Leaving it alone would have generated better debates on colonial rule and in exposing BBC’s agenda driven media coverage. As Tariq Mansoor says significantly, which all Indians want to work forward on, “The BBC has assembled 20 years of biased reportage, peppered it with outdated condiments and garnished it with loads of misplaced victimhood… We (Muslims) want to move on from the past — we do not live there anymore. We are looking ahead and are doing so with hope as well as anticipation.”
RANDOM MUSINGS 