THE THREE MISTAKES

You can always have a walking stick in your hand and sway it the way you wish to while going for a walk, provided it doesn’t hit the man in the front of you. Similarly, media is to entertain people and to enlighten them with facts unknown. Using it to agitate people can always prove to be extremely dangerous. This column will shed light on three such recent stunts, which have miffed many. These are my personal views and I have borrowed some quotes to make my points.

There is a thin line between being bold and being self-opinionated. Shedding light on a fact from a different perspective shows boldness. Mel Gibson had the guts to make a film as bold as ‘The Passion of the Christ’; Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code was yet another example for boldness. Both of them showed Christianity from very different perspective. It might have fired up controversies, but people always had a part of their mind analyzing what they both had said.   

But on the contrary, Nakoula (god knows if that is his real name), an American, whose anti-Muslim short video titled, ‘Innocence of Muslims’, shows the most respected Muslim leader, Prophet Mohammed from an utterly disturbing perspective - a completely baseless video and an utter insanity, which has stirred up a major part of the world.

Now, coming to the second mistake. This one is by an attention seeking controversy magnet. The Indian film maker in question, this time has targeted the elephant god of India, lord Ganesha. People have become so powerful that they have started taking on gods, nowadays.  Coming back to my point, this man used a social media to irritate people on the auspicious day of Vinayaka Chathurthi. He began the day with his tweet, “Upper limit of human dumbness is knowing no wishes on Ganesh Chaturthi ever brought happiness and prosperity to anyone ever they continue to wish”; and the best reply I could find was this - ‘The Bhooth Returns.’

Of all the 365 days, this director picks up Vinayaka Chathurthi, to flaunt his insanity through his quotes- ‘Is Ganesh chaturthi the day his father cut his head off?’, ‘Ganpati is pretty unique that he has his death day and birthday the same day’, ‘Not since Al-Qaida have I heard of a more barbaric act than a man cutting off a child's head who was just trying to protect his mothers modesty’, etc.. A director’s job is to keep people out of stress and entertain them. Why do this to court controversy?

As I conclude this section, I take the privilege of borrowing one of best comments that he received- ‘Happy Ganesh Chaturti, may he give you peace, good straight thoughts and let you use your intelligence in the right way’.

And the third one will be completely out of track from the first two. It is about the recently released song, ‘Dreamum, Wakeupum’ from the upcoming film Aiyyaa, starring Rani Mukherji and Prithviraj. Again, there is a very thin line between being genuine and being sarcastic. The statement, ‘oh yes… She is a beautiful’, can be uttered genuinely and sarcastically. It all depends on the modulation. Similarly, this Dirty Picture act of Rani Mukherji in Aiyyaa looks extremely sarcastic, provocative and insulting to south cinema. South Indian films aren’t stereotypic as they portray. Strangely, Aiyyaa’s producer Anurag Kashyap yet stated that his inspiration in creating Gangs of Wasseypur comes from the three gems of south India, Bala, Ameer and Sasikumar.

In fact, while I was talking to Rekhs, a film subtitlist, about Bollywood’s views on the South Indian Cinema, she rightly quoted it as “prejudiced and totally biased!” Like Rekhs, I too wish they would open their minds and remove their blinkers!

Looking at the first two instances I’m sure you are to wonder whether I’m a supporter of Islam or Hinduism. What bugs me isn’t the religion. It is usage of media, which I respect the most, to hurt the people and their sentiments. Come on you three… It’s high time you grow up!