“Cultural terrorism” is trending phrase
in social media after its usage by Padma Shri, Ulaga Nayagan Kamal Hassan.
Vishwaroopam, billed as his magnus opus, is turning out to be his nemesis much
to the chagrin of his beloved admirers and fans. The ping ponging of the courts
is not surprising for many, as it is quite typical in the Indian legal system.
The ban of the movie has left a rather bitter taste for Kamal and he has claimed
that he would be homeless if the ban was not lifted and has gone so far as to
suggest that he would leave the state of Tamil Nadu to find a true secular
place. Good luck to him finding such a place in India inspite of Secularism being
enshrined in the constitution.
I have not seen the movie but I
have spoken to people on both sides of the fence who have seen the movie. (I confess
that I am a massive fan of Kamal Hassan). That, he is Hindu born Brahmin and is
an atheist by choice, is something that has been in the open for a long time and
it is out of question to think that he is a Hindu Zealot clamouring to hurt the
feelings of Muslims. He has also been extremely consistent on his political
leanings or the lack of it, so one cannot suggest that he is playing into the
hands of political groups. Though it might be possible it would be rather
ridiculous to think he would pawn his possessions to rake up a controversy just
to ensure box office hit. The DTH controversy already did that.
So, what is the hue and cry about?
A group of leading Muslim organisations have termed that the movie will hurt
the feelings of Muslims as it has depicted the community in poor light and has
the potential to cause unrest in the country. (Media readings suggest that when
the issue was raised none of these organisations had actually seen the movie.)
Let us assume that for fire to be there, there must have been smoke. The main
objection stems from the fact that in a few scenes the Afghani based terrorists
have been shown to perform rituals, like reciting verses from the Holy Quran
during the course of the day and also indulging in dastardly acts. I, as a practising
Hindu would definitely be offended if someone took an oath on the Bhagavad Gita
and went about planting a bomb and killing innocent women and children. But
context is everything, when you see through a pigeon hole the pan of your
vision is exactly the size of the pigeon hole. When you open the door the
vision has significant periphery, which has the ability to radically change the
meaning. Keeping in mind that what has been portrayed in Vishwaroopam is not
something new and that which has been regularly used by Hollywood movies (and
in some Tamil movies – remember Roja – a Kashmiri militant praying), this ban seems
to be over the top. Mind you, Hollywood movies have to be censored as well by
the same board and I do not recall the Muslim community protesting movies ‘The Body
of Lies’ or ‘The Siege’. It would be very interesting to see how the community
reacts to ‘Zero Dark Thirty’.
For starters the movie is not
based in India and to add there is not a single character in the movie who is
an Indian Muslim, but for the protagonist, (not prota kada kaaran, as comically
questioned by a facebook-er) our very own Kamal Hassan. Kamal is a good guy in
the movie and goes after the bad guys and that is the one line story. Rightly
or wrongly, popular media have stereotyped the typical terrorist to be a machine
gun wielding man of middle eastern appearance, a glowing beard and a turban. Whilst,
this profiling is unfortunate, it does have basis. Think of the top 3 terrorist
attacks anywhere in the world in recent times and I would say 9 out of 10 times
you would see that those attacks have been perpetrated by groups owing
allegiance to the Muslim faith. How this portrayal could be different in this
movie beggars belief. May be Kamal should have casted Danny DeVito for the role
of the terrorist, in an Armani Suit, with Ray ban goggles holding a .22 rifle.
Whilst, I can rationalise the
hurt (if any) our Indian Muslim brothers and sisters feel, I do not believe
anything out of the ordinary has been said or shown in this film that warrants
a ban on the basis that it could cause widespread communal distress. If that is
the case then every Hollywood movie that is based on terrorism (and Roja for
that matter) has the same potential and hence cannot be shown in Tamil Nadu. What
blows me away more is the knee jerk reaction of the Tamil Nadu Government to
ban the movie in spite of certification to appease a section of the community
and merely playing vote bank politics. Overruling the Central Board of Film
Certification, a Statutory body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting,
Government of India smacks of arrogance, makes a mockery of the Censor board
and challenges the intelligence of the individuals representing the board.
The childish behaviour of the
Indian courts is just another thorn in Kamal’s flesh. To put it in layman’s
terms, you go to court because you cannot resolve an issue between two parties.
For a judge to suggest that the parties go away and amicably resolve this
between themselves, shows cowardice, naivety and sheer irresponsibility. You
could argue that arbitration is indeed legal and can provide a quicker end to
the controversy, but the courts under the cloak of ‘potential to incite social
unrest’, have lost the chance to set a precedent against Cultural terrorism. For
reasons best know the social unrest applies only to Tamil Nadu. The movies have
been running to full houses in Kerala, Karnataka, AP, the rest of India and
rest of the world. Compared to Tamil Nadu, Kerala has more than twice the
Muslims and it has not reported any violence caused by this film. But, by the
time this article goes to print who knows communal elements in the other states
could well have picked this as an opportunity to test tolerance.
In my view I do see there are fragments
in the movie when taken out of context, and only when taken out of context, have
the potential to upset a Muslim in general, but those scenes are just a
depiction of happenings in that part of the. The way the entire issue has panned
out in the last couple of weeks it does look like there is more to the eye than
meets. It is widely rumoured that the film rights not being given to a channel
close to the ruling party is one of the reasons for this mayhem. It has also
been suggested that Kamals’ suggestion that a “Dhoti clad” politician should become the PM
of India and has not gone down well in some quarters.
For his part Kamal has done
himself no favours by naming the movie Vishwaroopam, a strong Hindu religious icon
and compounding that with an Arabic styled English font for the title. The Holy
Quran is written in Arabic. This in itself causes a clash of cultures and
probably would have sown questions in the minds of Indian Muslims. On the other
hand, one viewer suggested that he was surprised that the Hindu Brahmin
community or the Women’s organisation have not gone up in arms to some of the
insinuations of the lead character in the movie. Thank you very much – I have
had enough for the day. I am half drained figuring out if is this really about
showing the Muslim community in bad light or is it a part of a wider political
agenda or maybe it is clever ploy by the TN Government to reduce the power
consumption in the state, thus redeeming itself from the pathetic power
situation in the state.
Whatever it may be, Kamal for the
love of his profession in the last 50 years, for his contribution to Tamil and
Indian cinema hardly deserves this. It is indeed a sad day where political
correctness is curbing creativity. Today it was Vishwaroopam, tomorrow it will
be something else. I do have a suggestion, let us all go and watch Tom and
Jerry – Oh no we can’t do that because there is a lot of violence in it – Jerry
beating up Tom all the time, the bulldog chopping the cats head.
Only in India, that is Bharat.
[Note: This article was written a few days before the two groups came to an agreement and the TN Goverment lifted the ban]
