देर से ही सही एक बड़े फिल्म निर्देशक मृणाल सेन ने बहुचर्चित आठ आस्कर अवार्ड जीत चुकी फिल्म स्लमडाग मिलिनेयर को खराब फिल्म कहा। वैसे तो फिल्म पर तमाम सवाल उठाए जा चुके हैं मगर ताज्जुब यह है कि मृणाल सेन ने अपनी यह राय इतनी देर से दी। अपने जन्मदिन के मौके पर दिए एक इंटरव्यू में उन्होंने आस्कर पर भी सवाल उठाया। दादा साहेब फाल्के पुरस्कार प्राप्त महान फिल्मकार मृणाल सेन का मानना है कि आस्कर सिनेमाई श्रेष्ठता का पैमाना नहीं है और महान फिल्मकारों को कभी इन पुरस्कारों से नवाजा नहीं गया।
वैसे फिल्म की निंदा संगीतकार आदेश श्रीवास्तव, बाबा रामदेव समेत तमाम विचारकों ने भी की है। कुछ बानगी इसी पोस्ट में भी देख सकते हैं। मगर इस फिल्म के प्रशंसक भी काफी हैं। अभी ही संपन्न हुए लोकसभा चुनाव में जहां माकपा उम्मीदवार मोहम्मद सलीम ने फिल्म का गाना जय हो को अपने सारे पोस्टरों पर लगवा दिया वहीं जय हो की तर्ज पर तमाम चुनावी नारे भी लगाए गए। अब यह समझना मुश्किल हो रहा है कि भारतीयों को कुत्ते की औकात पर ला देने वाली इस फिल्म के प्रशंसक भारतीय अस्मिता के रक्षक हैं या फिर फिल्म की निंदा करने वाले ?
मृणाल सेन ने इंटरव्यू में कहा कि मैं नहीं मानता कि आस्कर श्रेष्ठता का पैमाना है। क्या कभी चार्ली चैपलिन या सत्यजीत रे की किसी फिल्म को आस्कर मिला। कभी किसी महान फिल्मकार को आस्कर मिला हो, मुझे तो याद नहीं पड़ता। उन्होंने कहा कि आस्कर के लिए फिल्मकार अपनी प्रविष्टियां भेजते हैं और महान फिल्मकारों ने कभी इसके लिए अपनी फिल्में नहीं भेजी होंगी। आठ आस्कर जीतने वाली भारतीय पृष्ठभूमि पर बनी स्लमडाग मिलेनियर के बारे में पूछने पर उन्होंने कहा कि मैने फिल्म देखी नहीं है लेकिन यह जरूर बहुत खराब फिल्म होगी। झुग्गी झोपड़ी में रहने वाले लड़के के करोड़पति बनने की कहानी से पता नहीं वे क्या दिखाना चाहते हैं। इसकी थीम ही खराब है।
मृगया, भुवन सोम, रातभोर और पदातिक जैसी अनगिनत बेहतरीन फिल्में बना चुके इस वयोवृद्ध फिल्मकार ने मौजूदा दौर की फिल्मों के स्तर पर निराशा जताई। आज अपना 87वां जन्मदिन मना रहे सेन ने कहा कि आजकल की फिल्में मुझे पसंद नहीं। मैंने कुछ चर्चित फिल्में देखी लेकिन पसंद नहीं आई। मैं उनके बारे में बात भी नहीं करना चाहता।
अपनी पुरानी क्लासिक फिल्मों के मास्टर प्रिंट नष्ट होने से व्यथित सेन ने बताया कि सत्तर के दशक में बनी प्रतिदिन, कलकत्ता 71 और खंडहर जैसी 1984 में बनी फिल्म के प्रिंट भी नष्ट होने की कगार पर हैं। उन्होंने कहा कि फिल्मों के संरक्षण की बात मैं कई साल से कहता आया हूं। मेरे पास इतना पैसा नहीं है कि मैं उन्हें बचा सकूं। केंद्र सरकार से इस बारे में बात हुई है और चुनाव के बाद इस बारे में कोई फैसला लिया जाएगा। हम अपनी धरोहरों को यूं खो नहीं सकते। सत्यजीत रे की कालजई फिल्म पाथेर पांचाली के मास्टर प्रिंट भी लंदन फिल्म महोत्सव के दौरान खराब हो गए थे। फोर्ड फाउंडेशन ने लाखों रूपए खर्च करके उसे बचाया। सेन की भी पुनश्च : 1961 : और प्रतिनिधि : 1964 : के मास्टर प्रिंट नष्ट हो चुके हैं। सेन ने कहा कि यह दुखद है लेकिन मुझे सच्चाई को स्वीकार करना ही होगा।
आखिरी बार 2002 में आमार भुवन बनाने वाले सेन ने निर्देशन का दामन नहीं छोड़ा है लेकिन उन्हें सही पटकथा का इंतजार है। उन्होंने कहा कि मैं रोज सुबह उठता हूं तो नई पटकथा लिखने की सोचता हूं। पिछले सात साल से ऐसा ही कर रहा हूं। पता नहीं मुझे सही कहानी कब मिलेगी। अपनी सृजनात्मक क्षुधा को कैसे शांत करते हैं, यह पूछने पर उन्होंने कहा कि मैं ऐसी बहुत सी चीजें करना चाहता हूं जो नहीं कर पाया। अपनी हर फिल्म को जब मैं देखता हूं तो मुझे वह ड्रेस रिहर्सल लगती है। मुझे लगता है कि इससे बेहतर कर सकता था। लगता है कि काश अपनी जिंदगी को दोबारा जी सकता और अधिक फिल्में बना सकता। ( News agencies)
सड़क पर आए 'स्लमडॉग मिलिनेअर' के बच्चे
14 May 2009, 1750 hrs IST,आईएएनएस
14 May 2009, 1750 hrs IST,आईएएनएस
मुंबई ।। मुंबई में गुरुवार सुबह वृहन मुंबई नगर निगम (एमसीजीएम)द्वारा करीब 50 झोपड़ियां ढहाए जाने की वज
ह से ऑस्कर से सम्मानित 'स्लमडॉग मिलिनेअर' में काम कर चुके करीब 20 बच्चे सड़क पर आ गए।
फिल्म में मुख्य बाल कलाकार की भूमिका निभाने वाले अजहरुद्दीन इस्माइल एम. शेख ने बताया कि एमसीजीएम का एक दल बिना पूर्व घोषणा के गुरुवार सुबह आ गया और उसने बांद्रा ईस्ट के गरीब नगर की झोंपड़ियों में रहनेवालों से बाहर निकलने को कहा।
अजहर ने रोते हुए बताया कि हमारे पास रहने को कोई ठिकाना नहीं। हम चिलचिलाती धूप में सड़क पर बैठे हैं। हमारा सारा सामान या तो फेंक दिया गया है या फिर नष्ट हो गया है। हम नहीं जानते आज हमारा पेट कैसे भरेगा।
संपर्क करने पर एमसीजीएम के यू. डी. मिस्त्री ने बताया कि निगम को मुख्यालय की ओर से बांद्रा ईस्ट के मुख्य नाले पर बनी झोंपड़ियां हटाने का आदेश मिला था। मिस्त्री ने बताया, ''हो सकता है कि इन सिलेब्रिटी बच्चों का घर भी उसी जगह पड़ता हो लेकिन हमें तो आदेश का पालन करना पड़ता है।''
इस बीच अजहर और उसकी साथी कलाकार रूबीना अली कुरैशी की उम्मीद अब महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री अशोक चव्हाण पर टिकी है जिन्होंने उन्हें फ्लैट देने का वादा किया था। चुनावों की घोषणा होने के कारण फ्लैट आवंटन में विलंब हो गया था लेकिन सोमवार को आदर्श आचार संहिता हट जाएगी।
याकूब शेख नाम के एक निवासी ने बताया कि पिछले पांच साल में यह दूसरी बार हुआ है जब एमसीजीएम ने इलाके की झुग्गियां ढहाई हैं। पिछली बार ढहाए जाने के बाद से कलाकारों सहित सभी परिवार पार्क या फुटपाथ पर रह रहे थे।
फिल्म में मुख्य बाल कलाकार की भूमिका निभाने वाले अजहरुद्दीन इस्माइल एम. शेख ने बताया कि एमसीजीएम का एक दल बिना पूर्व घोषणा के गुरुवार सुबह आ गया और उसने बांद्रा ईस्ट के गरीब नगर की झोंपड़ियों में रहनेवालों से बाहर निकलने को कहा।
अजहर ने रोते हुए बताया कि हमारे पास रहने को कोई ठिकाना नहीं। हम चिलचिलाती धूप में सड़क पर बैठे हैं। हमारा सारा सामान या तो फेंक दिया गया है या फिर नष्ट हो गया है। हम नहीं जानते आज हमारा पेट कैसे भरेगा।
संपर्क करने पर एमसीजीएम के यू. डी. मिस्त्री ने बताया कि निगम को मुख्यालय की ओर से बांद्रा ईस्ट के मुख्य नाले पर बनी झोंपड़ियां हटाने का आदेश मिला था। मिस्त्री ने बताया, ''हो सकता है कि इन सिलेब्रिटी बच्चों का घर भी उसी जगह पड़ता हो लेकिन हमें तो आदेश का पालन करना पड़ता है।''
इस बीच अजहर और उसकी साथी कलाकार रूबीना अली कुरैशी की उम्मीद अब महाराष्ट्र के मुख्यमंत्री अशोक चव्हाण पर टिकी है जिन्होंने उन्हें फ्लैट देने का वादा किया था। चुनावों की घोषणा होने के कारण फ्लैट आवंटन में विलंब हो गया था लेकिन सोमवार को आदर्श आचार संहिता हट जाएगी।
याकूब शेख नाम के एक निवासी ने बताया कि पिछले पांच साल में यह दूसरी बार हुआ है जब एमसीजीएम ने इलाके की झुग्गियां ढहाई हैं। पिछली बार ढहाए जाने के बाद से कलाकारों सहित सभी परिवार पार्क या फुटपाथ पर रह रहे थे।
'कुत्ता' कहलाकर ऑस्कर जीतना शर्म की बात: रामदेव
10 Mar 2009, 1901 hrs IST,भाषा
10 Mar 2009, 1901 hrs IST,भाषा
जयपुर।। स्लमडाग मिलिनेअर को ऑस्कर पुरस्कार मिलने पर देश भर में खुशियां मनाए जाने से योग गुरु बाबा राम
  बाबा रामदेव |
देव खासे दुखी हैं। योग गुरु ने कहा कि इस फिल्म में भारतीयों की बड़ी आबादी को 'कुत्ते' की तरह दिखाया गया है। बाबा ने कहा कि कुत्ता कहलाकर पुरस्कार जीतने पर भारतीयों को शर्म आनी चाहिए।
रामदेव मंगलवार को बापू नगर स्थित प्राकृतिक चिकित्सालय में एक समारोह को संबोधित कर रहे थे। उन्होंने कहा कि पश्चिमी देश भारत में रहने वालों को आज भी कुत्ता मानते हैं। हमें (भारतवासियों को)'कुत्ते' की तरह सम्मानित किया गया। यह भारतवासियों के लिए शर्म की बात होनी चाहिए, पर यह दुख की बात है कि देश भर में 'स्लमडॉग मिलिनेअर' को पश्चिमी देश का पुरस्कार (ऑस्कर) मिलने पर खुशियां मनाई जा रही है। बाबा ने इस घटना को बेहद शर्मनाक करार दिया। उन्होंने कहा कि यह देशवासियों के बौद्धिक स्तर में आई गिरावट को दर्शाता है। बाबा ने जोर देकर कहा कि हमें इस बौद्धिक गिरावट को रोकने की जरूरत है।
गौरतलब है कि मुंबई के स्लम के बैकग्राउंड पर बनी 'स्लमडॉग मिलिनेअर' ऑस्कर की 10 कैटिगरी में नॉमिनेट थी और बेस्ट मूवी समेत 8 अवॉर्ड जीतकर वह सबसे आगे रही। इससे पहले 1982 में भारतीय पृष्ठभूमि पर बनी 'गांधी' को भी 8 ऑस्कर अवॉर्ड्स मिले थे।
रामदेव मंगलवार को बापू नगर स्थित प्राकृतिक चिकित्सालय में एक समारोह को संबोधित कर रहे थे। उन्होंने कहा कि पश्चिमी देश भारत में रहने वालों को आज भी कुत्ता मानते हैं। हमें (भारतवासियों को)'कुत्ते' की तरह सम्मानित किया गया। यह भारतवासियों के लिए शर्म की बात होनी चाहिए, पर यह दुख की बात है कि देश भर में 'स्लमडॉग मिलिनेअर' को पश्चिमी देश का पुरस्कार (ऑस्कर) मिलने पर खुशियां मनाई जा रही है। बाबा ने इस घटना को बेहद शर्मनाक करार दिया। उन्होंने कहा कि यह देशवासियों के बौद्धिक स्तर में आई गिरावट को दर्शाता है। बाबा ने जोर देकर कहा कि हमें इस बौद्धिक गिरावट को रोकने की जरूरत है।
गौरतलब है कि मुंबई के स्लम के बैकग्राउंड पर बनी 'स्लमडॉग मिलिनेअर' ऑस्कर की 10 कैटिगरी में नॉमिनेट थी और बेस्ट मूवी समेत 8 अवॉर्ड जीतकर वह सबसे आगे रही। इससे पहले 1982 में भारतीय पृष्ठभूमि पर बनी 'गांधी' को भी 8 ऑस्कर अवॉर्ड्स मिले थे।
कार्टूनों में समागहित यह एक टिप्पणी
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__स्मडाग बनाने की सोच पर यह टिप्पणी._,_.___
स्मडाग बनाने की सोच पर यह टिप्पणी
कितनी मेहनत करते हैं लोग !!!!!!!!!
On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 12:26 PM, Ashish <tambe.ashish@gmail.com> wrote:
Recently, i have got a mail from one of my friend about the Oscar Winning Film Slumdog Millionaire.
Though, i have not seen the movie yet, but i am willing to share contents of that mail with you people as this exposes the other side of film. Do you feel that its a Media Scam??? please go thru the slides below and share your comments.
Religion, Marxism and Slumdog
Francois Gautier
Express Buzz
WHY did a film like Slumdog Millionaire, which conveys an utterly negative image of India — slums, exploitation, poverty, corruption, anti Muslim pogroms — create so many waves in the West, pre and post Oscars?
And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality?
There are several answers:
When the missionaries began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent.
They therefore decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows, sati … Today, these exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths, have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India's intelligentsia.
We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority complex over the socalled Third World in general and India in particular.
Sitting in front of our television sets during prime time news, with a hefty steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly flatters our ego and makes us proud of our so-called 'achievements'.
That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.
In this film, India's foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free medical aid, schooling and loans.
If you see the Tamil Nadu coast posttsunami, there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one's head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals — so much for his impartiality).
Islamic fundamentalism also ruthlessly hounds India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single act of savagery.
Indian communists, in power in three states, are also hard at work to dismantle India's cultural and spiritual inheritance. And finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a failure in the West.
Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.
Many of the West's India-specialists are staunchly anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate the tradition of Max Mueller, the first 'Sankritist' who said: "The Vedas is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low, commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from the depths of the soul".
This tradition is carried over by Indologists such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty, slums — and more than anything — their pet theories about 'Hindu fundamentalism'.
Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practise their religion freely.
And finally, it is true that Indians, because they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism.
Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools, such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess infinite wisdom.
Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based.
In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal's mother is not killed by "Hindu fanatics', but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal's torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.
And finally, yes, there still exists in India a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural — much more than in the West as a matter of fact.
When will the West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists, more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West. fgautier26@gmail.com
Related articles below:
1) Motivation of Indologists
2) Invading the Sacred
3) Interview of Evangelist
They've started calling Indians 'slumdogs': Composer Aadesh Srivastava
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/n/i/top_stories/2867/
Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS) Bollywood composer Aadesh Srivastava says he is
embarrassed to walk on the streets of the US after Oscar-nominated
"Slumdog Millionaire" because "they have started calling Indians
slumdogs".
"I'm so upset. They've started calling Indians 'slumdogs', just like
'coolie' was a 'slang' in Britain. Now in the US I feel slumdog is a
'gaali' (slang) for Indians. Mumbai has given me everything,"
Srivastava told IANS.
"To see the city being shown as a place of dirt, filth and crime only
is very humiliating. Even I can make a film on child prostitution and
paedophilia. But it won't get Oscars because I am not a 'gora'
(white)," added the composer.
Based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A", "Slumdog
Millionaire" is about an impoverished teaboy who wins a quiz show.
Directed by British director Danny Boyle, the story is set in the
slums of Mumbai. While Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto and NRI Dev Patel
played main leads, A.R. Rahman composed the music for the movie. It
has got 10 Oscar nominations, out of which three are for Rahman.
The film was lauded in the West, but it has been criticised by some in
India for showing its ugly side by concentrating on grinding poverty.
"What right does the director have to show Mumbai as a slum? Now we
are considered a slum city in all parts of the world. Humlog kahin
mooh dikhane laayak nahin rahe (we're unable to show our face
anywhere)," said Srivastava, who watched the movie in Los Angeles this
week.
Srivastava applauds fellow composer Rahman's music in the movie, but
says he'd never be part of a film that makes India look like a slum.
"I'm so upset. It's a disgusting movie. Being an Indian it was doubly
humiliating to be watching the film with Americans. Even if Steven
Spielberg asked me to compose music for a film that makes fun of
India, I won't do it," he said.
Being a diehard Amitabh Bachchan fan, Srivastava is appalled by the
way the Big B is shown in the film.
"I puked when I saw that kid smeared in shit asking for Bachchan
saab's autograph. What the f...k was that? Does Danny Boyle know what
Bachchan saab means to us Indians? Who would dare approach him like
that?
"We applaud people who come to our city and spit in our faces!" he said.
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/n/i/top_stories/2867/
Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS) Bollywood composer Aadesh Srivastava says he is
embarrassed to walk on the streets of the US after Oscar-nominated
"Slumdog Millionaire" because "they have started calling Indians
slumdogs".
"I'm so upset. They've started calling Indians 'slumdogs', just like
'coolie' was a 'slang' in Britain. Now in the US I feel slumdog is a
'gaali' (slang) for Indians. Mumbai has given me everything,"
Srivastava told IANS.
"To see the city being shown as a place of dirt, filth and crime only
is very humiliating. Even I can make a film on child prostitution and
paedophilia. But it won't get Oscars because I am not a 'gora'
(white)," added the composer.
Based on Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup's novel "Q & A", "Slumdog
Millionaire" is about an impoverished teaboy who wins a quiz show.
Directed by British director Danny Boyle, the story is set in the
slums of Mumbai. While Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto and NRI Dev Patel
played main leads, A.R. Rahman composed the music for the movie. It
has got 10 Oscar nominations, out of which three are for Rahman.
The film was lauded in the West, but it has been criticised by some in
India for showing its ugly side by concentrating on grinding poverty.
"What right does the director have to show Mumbai as a slum? Now we
are considered a slum city in all parts of the world. Humlog kahin
mooh dikhane laayak nahin rahe (we're unable to show our face
anywhere)," said Srivastava, who watched the movie in Los Angeles this
week.
Srivastava applauds fellow composer Rahman's music in the movie, but
says he'd never be part of a film that makes India look like a slum.
"I'm so upset. It's a disgusting movie. Being an Indian it was doubly
humiliating to be watching the film with Americans. Even if Steven
Spielberg asked me to compose music for a film that makes fun of
India, I won't do it," he said.
Being a diehard Amitabh Bachchan fan, Srivastava is appalled by the
way the Big B is shown in the film.
"I puked when I saw that kid smeared in shit asking for Bachchan
saab's autograph. What the f...k was that? Does Danny Boyle know what
Bachchan saab means to us Indians? Who would dare approach him like
that?
"We applaud people who come to our city and spit in our faces!" he said.
Slumdog Millionaire: the prejudice continues?
Saurav Basu
http://www.blogs.ivarta.com/Slumdog-Millionaire-prejudice-
continues/blog-231.htm
Back in the good old days when Satyajit Ray often made the most
sublime neo-realistic cinema, one Ms. Nargis Dutt caustically charged
him with selling Indian poverty abroad. Yet, Satyajit Ray"s films did
not feature Calcutta"s slums but the villages of Bengal. There was an
undercurrent of poverty in his major films like Pather Panchali,
Aparajito and Pratidwandhi but there was human irony. No
romanticizing poverty yet ultimately a resounding affirmation of
human dignity. Who can forget the immortal scene in Aparajito where a
guilt ridden Apu, a poor Brahmana boy rejects his priestly duties
towards his mother"s last rites and opts to pursue a modern education
instead.
Ray"s father was a Brahmo and he himself a recalcitrant Hindu, yet
his cinema encompassed everything that represented the best and the
worst of Indian civilization ethos.
Through the vicissitudes of times, India has emerged as a global
economy shedding both its Nehruvian rate of growth and the associated
stereotypes, although we are admittedly a third world country with
sub Saharan level hunger and human development indices. Yet, a share
of its misfortune may be attributed to being surrounded by two failed
states whose burdens of jihadi terrorism and poverty India has to
suffer. Even the slum is an artificial socio-political construct and
misrepresents Indian poverty.
Indian slums have unpaid electricity accounts yet even today
thousands of Indian villages wait electrification; slums have NGOs
operating in vain while villages still await their first permanent
school buildings. Slums create and sustain criminals yet millions of
Indian villages represent a morally and ethical superior way of life
and hospitality. Slums in India are infested by some over 30-40
million illegal Bangladeshi migrants who constitute a sizable secular
votebank.
But contemporary film making seems to have appreciated little of
these ground realities; instead we find a rehash of the old and
improbable rags to riches story in an ultra-regressive style. A
magnificent Mumbai slum, two Muslim brothers, a Hindu mob killing
innocent Muslim women, criminally amputated children singing Surdas"s
songs, Hindu policemen torturing an innocent Muslim boy and a
diabolic Hindu game-show host who hands his Muslim contestant to his
Hindu police which hates the Amnesty international, and voila, you
have all the ingredients for a "secular" potboiler which is on the
road to the Oscars! You might argue that it"s not realistic but only
fantasy since there is greater probability of winning the jackpot on
a lottery ticket without being abused by the police than winning the
top prize on a quiz show with 15 unique questions.
But then you can be kidding with the graphic depiction of blood
curdling anti Muslim riot in which a Hindu mob slits the children"s
mother, the Indian policeman electrocuting the Muslim suspect or the
gory scene of the amputation of the street children by the mafia who
are then forced to sing Surdas"s bhajans. The book by Vikas Swarup
has the main protagonist named as Ram Mohammad Thomas who was
conveniently transformed into a Muslim boy, Jamal Malik who lost his
mother to a Hindu mob to make it sound in the author"s own confession
more "politically correct."
When was the last time in Indian History when an unprovoked Hindu
population took to violence? For the record the Mumbai riots were
incited by fanatical Muslim mobs in the face of the Baburi Masjid
demolition. Moreover, it beats me how the consequent Mumbai bomb
blasts triggered by local Muslim gangs can be disassociated from the
Mumbai riots? And the much maligned Bombay Police recently lost
sixteen of its bravest men while defending the city"s freedom of
speech and expression against Islamist zealots who wanted to
replicate in India, a 7th century Arabia.
More disturbingly, you have the depiction of the blue bodied Rama
whom Hindus consider as Maryada Puroshottam [the best among men]
threatening to terminate the existence of the innocent Muslim
children. To a question on with which weapons is Lord Rama depicted
with in popular iconography, Jamal Malik the protagonist does not
remember the grand Ram Lilas which happen across the country or Ram
Kathas on televisions. Instead, a Hindu kid dressed like immaculately
like Lord Rama stand in the mid of a slum in a threatening pose. And
one cannot miss the hatred being portrayed in the face and looks of
that young Hindu kid, younger than even Jamaal. Even a 5 year old
Hindu kid is a communal bigot and Rama is responsible for all the
communal crap. Muslims are seculars and victims by definition. And we
need one white director to tell these things to the whole world.
Not only this we have forcibly amputated children singing Surdas"s
bhajan pining for a glimpse of illusory Krishna? This insensitive
jaundiced anti Hindu view is reminiscent of Indian leftist cinema
where Hindu male characters are black and Muslims white! Remember, Mr
and Mrs Iyer where a Hindu mob was searching for circumcised dicks
and didn"t even spare a Jew in true Nazi fashion! Never mind that in
world history, Hindus are the only people who don"t carry an atom of
anti-Semitism, but the director"s flight of "secularist" fancy won
critical acclaim.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in his film Uttara shows a band of Hindu goons
burning a Christian church made in service of the lord"s lepers and
raping an orphan girl in the process. Expectedly, this rather
original gruesome way of story-telling won him the national awards!
In the Tamil hit, Dasavathaaram, we find an anti-historical situation
fantasizing Shaivite intolerance against Vaishnavs where Ramanujam"s
disciple is shown fighting Kulothunga Chola. Based on a solitary
description of Chola antagonism in Ramanujam"s writings, we discover
the Chola fanatic stealing the idol of Vishnu from Srirangam,
ironically the same temple complex which was plundered at least five
times by Islamic armies. Similarly, Kamal Hassan in his movie "Anbe
Sivam", shows a pious Shiva devotee injuring the hero who is rescued
by a group of benevolent Christian nuns. Previously, in the 70s when
anti-Brahmana movement in Tamil Nadu was at its peak, we had Brahmana
priests routinely paraded as rascals in Tamil movies.
"Islamic" sensitivities have extracted book bans from both British
and Congress governments. Girja Kumar in his "Book on Trial" has
reproduced dozens of cases where Hindu books critical of Islam or the
Prophet were banned, and the authors faced arrest or were killed.
Salman Rushdie"s flight and Taslima Nasrin"s plight is well known.
Lajja almost faced a ban because she had exposed the genocide against
Hindus in Bangladesh. Movies on the state of Kashmiri pundits,
victims of Islamic genocide against Hindus of Bangladeshis, the Hindu
victims of the North East against Christian separatism and also the
historical crimes by the armies of Islam and inquisitory Christianity
are taboo in a "secular country" They cannot see the light of the day
because they are inimical to communal harmony and hurt minority
sentiments.
This ostentatious display of anti Hindu sentiment is of course lost
on the jingoists or those ABCDs who go gaga over such pernicious
cinema. Sincere critics questioning the dumb plot where a slum boy
grows up into a sophisticated leftist JNU product with a flawless
English accent are censured by appealing to the authority of the
Golden globe awards. They keenly forget the film was precisely
designed for that, appeal to the racial sensitivities of those who
really matter! Therefore, even the liberation of Jamal is not through
out of any indigenous worth, but through an internationally funded
poverty alleviation game show [Kaun Banega Crorepati recedes into its
international avatar, Who wants to become a millionaire].
Saurav Basu
http://www.blogs.ivarta.com/Slumdog-Millionaire-prejudice-
continues/blog-231.htm
Back in the good old days when Satyajit Ray often made the most
sublime neo-realistic cinema, one Ms. Nargis Dutt caustically charged
him with selling Indian poverty abroad. Yet, Satyajit Ray"s films did
not feature Calcutta"s slums but the villages of Bengal. There was an
undercurrent of poverty in his major films like Pather Panchali,
Aparajito and Pratidwandhi but there was human irony. No
romanticizing poverty yet ultimately a resounding affirmation of
human dignity. Who can forget the immortal scene in Aparajito where a
guilt ridden Apu, a poor Brahmana boy rejects his priestly duties
towards his mother"s last rites and opts to pursue a modern education
instead.
Ray"s father was a Brahmo and he himself a recalcitrant Hindu, yet
his cinema encompassed everything that represented the best and the
worst of Indian civilization ethos.
Through the vicissitudes of times, India has emerged as a global
economy shedding both its Nehruvian rate of growth and the associated
stereotypes, although we are admittedly a third world country with
sub Saharan level hunger and human development indices. Yet, a share
of its misfortune may be attributed to being surrounded by two failed
states whose burdens of jihadi terrorism and poverty India has to
suffer. Even the slum is an artificial socio-political construct and
misrepresents Indian poverty.
Indian slums have unpaid electricity accounts yet even today
thousands of Indian villages wait electrification; slums have NGOs
operating in vain while villages still await their first permanent
school buildings. Slums create and sustain criminals yet millions of
Indian villages represent a morally and ethical superior way of life
and hospitality. Slums in India are infested by some over 30-40
million illegal Bangladeshi migrants who constitute a sizable secular
votebank.
But contemporary film making seems to have appreciated little of
these ground realities; instead we find a rehash of the old and
improbable rags to riches story in an ultra-regressive style. A
magnificent Mumbai slum, two Muslim brothers, a Hindu mob killing
innocent Muslim women, criminally amputated children singing Surdas"s
songs, Hindu policemen torturing an innocent Muslim boy and a
diabolic Hindu game-show host who hands his Muslim contestant to his
Hindu police which hates the Amnesty international, and voila, you
have all the ingredients for a "secular" potboiler which is on the
road to the Oscars! You might argue that it"s not realistic but only
fantasy since there is greater probability of winning the jackpot on
a lottery ticket without being abused by the police than winning the
top prize on a quiz show with 15 unique questions.
But then you can be kidding with the graphic depiction of blood
curdling anti Muslim riot in which a Hindu mob slits the children"s
mother, the Indian policeman electrocuting the Muslim suspect or the
gory scene of the amputation of the street children by the mafia who
are then forced to sing Surdas"s bhajans. The book by Vikas Swarup
has the main protagonist named as Ram Mohammad Thomas who was
conveniently transformed into a Muslim boy, Jamal Malik who lost his
mother to a Hindu mob to make it sound in the author"s own confession
more "politically correct."
When was the last time in Indian History when an unprovoked Hindu
population took to violence? For the record the Mumbai riots were
incited by fanatical Muslim mobs in the face of the Baburi Masjid
demolition. Moreover, it beats me how the consequent Mumbai bomb
blasts triggered by local Muslim gangs can be disassociated from the
Mumbai riots? And the much maligned Bombay Police recently lost
sixteen of its bravest men while defending the city"s freedom of
speech and expression against Islamist zealots who wanted to
replicate in India, a 7th century Arabia.
More disturbingly, you have the depiction of the blue bodied Rama
whom Hindus consider as Maryada Puroshottam [the best among men]
threatening to terminate the existence of the innocent Muslim
children. To a question on with which weapons is Lord Rama depicted
with in popular iconography, Jamal Malik the protagonist does not
remember the grand Ram Lilas which happen across the country or Ram
Kathas on televisions. Instead, a Hindu kid dressed like immaculately
like Lord Rama stand in the mid of a slum in a threatening pose. And
one cannot miss the hatred being portrayed in the face and looks of
that young Hindu kid, younger than even Jamaal. Even a 5 year old
Hindu kid is a communal bigot and Rama is responsible for all the
communal crap. Muslims are seculars and victims by definition. And we
need one white director to tell these things to the whole world.
Not only this we have forcibly amputated children singing Surdas"s
bhajan pining for a glimpse of illusory Krishna? This insensitive
jaundiced anti Hindu view is reminiscent of Indian leftist cinema
where Hindu male characters are black and Muslims white! Remember, Mr
and Mrs Iyer where a Hindu mob was searching for circumcised dicks
and didn"t even spare a Jew in true Nazi fashion! Never mind that in
world history, Hindus are the only people who don"t carry an atom of
anti-Semitism, but the director"s flight of "secularist" fancy won
critical acclaim.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in his film Uttara shows a band of Hindu goons
burning a Christian church made in service of the lord"s lepers and
raping an orphan girl in the process. Expectedly, this rather
original gruesome way of story-telling won him the national awards!
In the Tamil hit, Dasavathaaram, we find an anti-historical situation
fantasizing Shaivite intolerance against Vaishnavs where Ramanujam"s
disciple is shown fighting Kulothunga Chola. Based on a solitary
description of Chola antagonism in Ramanujam"s writings, we discover
the Chola fanatic stealing the idol of Vishnu from Srirangam,
ironically the same temple complex which was plundered at least five
times by Islamic armies. Similarly, Kamal Hassan in his movie "Anbe
Sivam", shows a pious Shiva devotee injuring the hero who is rescued
by a group of benevolent Christian nuns. Previously, in the 70s when
anti-Brahmana movement in Tamil Nadu was at its peak, we had Brahmana
priests routinely paraded as rascals in Tamil movies.
"Islamic" sensitivities have extracted book bans from both British
and Congress governments. Girja Kumar in his "Book on Trial" has
reproduced dozens of cases where Hindu books critical of Islam or the
Prophet were banned, and the authors faced arrest or were killed.
Salman Rushdie"s flight and Taslima Nasrin"s plight is well known.
Lajja almost faced a ban because she had exposed the genocide against
Hindus in Bangladesh. Movies on the state of Kashmiri pundits,
victims of Islamic genocide against Hindus of Bangladeshis, the Hindu
victims of the North East against Christian separatism and also the
historical crimes by the armies of Islam and inquisitory Christianity
are taboo in a "secular country" They cannot see the light of the day
because they are inimical to communal harmony and hurt minority
sentiments.
This ostentatious display of anti Hindu sentiment is of course lost
on the jingoists or those ABCDs who go gaga over such pernicious
cinema. Sincere critics questioning the dumb plot where a slum boy
grows up into a sophisticated leftist JNU product with a flawless
English accent are censured by appealing to the authority of the
Golden globe awards. They keenly forget the film was precisely
designed for that, appeal to the racial sensitivities of those who
really matter! Therefore, even the liberation of Jamal is not through
out of any indigenous worth, but through an internationally funded
poverty alleviation game show [Kaun Banega Crorepati recedes into its
international avatar, Who wants to become a millionaire].
1 comment:
aapki is maha-post ko dekhne-padhne k bad aapko hardik badhaiyan dene ka mann karta hai, suchmuch aapne ek zabardast aalekh aur ek sarthak aalekh hamen uplabdh karaya...THANK YOU SO MUCH
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