PK: Some Preliminary Observations No film buff I am. Let me confess upfront at the very beginning. Have watched only a limited number of films over my lifetime. And my exposure to *mainstream* Hindi films is really really limited. Yet did a review (see: <http://www.indocanadaoutlook.com/0309_shining_india_mumbai_through_the_prism_of_slumdog_millionaire.html>), of sorts, once in the past, just once, over half a decade back, of the Slumdog Millionaire, .
Watched the film PK only last evening. A few days back, it had been recommended on an e-list of which I am a member. Then came the waves of cacophonous, and violent, protests by various Hindutva groups - all over north and western India, in particular (see, for example: <http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-pk-controversy-aamir-khan-film-sparks-outrage-in-several-indian-cities-2047859>). Some Muslim clerics also reportedly provided their moral support (see: <http://www.timesnow.tv/Debate-The-PK-debate-Who-crossed-the-line---2/videoshow/4471834.cms>). As the end product of all these, and a few other factors, I was there the last evening to watch the film without wasting too much time given the ongoing threat to the continuance of its show. The film (see, for details: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_(film)#Casting>) opens with the landing of a fictional extraterrestrial being (acted by Aamir Khan) from an unknown planet, not the usual type - looking every inch a human (male) but for the slight peculiarity, only slight, of his ears, landing on the Earth, in some desert of Rajasthan in India, in his fictional spacecraft. Some interesting actions follow, but rather briefly, at that very site. Then the story shifts to rather faraway Belgium - a "boy meets girl" or rather a girl meets a boy sequence follows with entirely a new set of characters. But this sequence has a slight twist as compared to the more usual versions. That adds a bit of further drama. The girl is a Hindu Indian, the boy is a Muslim Pakistani. After a while the story moves to Delhi; and the "girl", now estranged from the "boy", happens to meet the extraterrestrial being, now known as PK. And, the main story unfolds. At the end of it all, the "girl" unites with the "boy" - with tears of joy copiously flowing and the girl's father, who had been utterly outraged at the outset, accepting the "boy" with all the warmth one can just think of. The extraterrestrial being, PK, of course departs back to his own planet resolving the tensions of only a half-developed triangular love story. And the film finally folds up with a cameo appearance of Ranbir Kapoor on the screen, with no apparent purpose other than to jack up the chances of its success with the box office by half a notch at least. (Standing by the side of AK, at least to me, he looked quite dumb.) So what has made the various strands of the Hindutva Brigade gone mad with rage? For that one has to look into what happened in between. To cut a long story short, PK, in the process of his desperate search for the remote control of his spacecraft which had been robbed of him soon after his landing by a local bad character mistaking it to be a precious locket, raises some very commonsensical questions with the intelligent naivety of an alien about God/gods and godmen. While Hinduism happens to be the main focus, given the characters involved, other religions are also referred to. And the principal godman here resembles, only to an extent, the late Sathya Sai Baba. Of course the film had opened with a (not too unusual) disclaimer that the characters depicted are all fictional and there is no intention to hurt anyone's sentiments. But that obviously has failed to help. So has the gratitude expressed to L K Advani and Sri Sri Ravishankar, again at the very opening of the film. Even an obvious compromise made, going against the very grain of the narrative, conceding the existence, and legitimacy, of the God, who (supposedly) created humans, as contrasted from the God/gods created by humans, in the unarguably the most climactic scene - a live TV debate between PK and the principal godman - Tapasvi Maharaj, to make the film more acceptable to the general audience has not helped. The fact that PK is, all said and done, a commercially successful conventional Bollywood film - albeit with an explicit "rationalist" core and also another explicit message that happens to run counter to the ongoing Love Jihad campaigns by various wings of the Hindutva Brigade - and not a "radical" or "art" film with limited footfalls has presumably all the more unnerved the Brigade. So what follows is that the "hurt sentiments" syndrome has emerged as a very major threat to democratic freedoms - freedom of expression, in particular - and values. To be fair, the Hindutva Brigade is not the only religion linked group to exhibit this syndrome; but given the political reality of today's India, it, undoubtedly, constitutes the most major threat. Just to illustrate, the BJP-led state government of Maharashtra instead of providing constitutionally mandated state protection to the theatres and multiplexes showing the film has asked the state police to look for objectionable contents in the movie (see, for example: <http://www.ibtimes.co.in/aamirs-pk-controversies-maharashtra-government-look-into-objectionable-scenes-promises-618786>) in response to vandalising protests in the state. This is despite the fact that the film has been duly approved by the film censor board - the appropriate body to look into such aspects and take necessary actions and,. not only that, just the other day, the Supreme Court outright rejected a plea to ban the movie (see, for example: <http://lawmantra.co.in/apex-court-rejects-ban-on-aamir-khans-pk-says-dont-watch-the-film-if-you-dont-like-it/>) - directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. At least one single-screen theatre in Mumbai has already stopped showing the film (see, for example: <http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/deepak-talkies-stops-pk-screening-amid-protests-threats-by-saffron-groups/>). Maximum violence has been reported from BJP-ruled Gujarat (see, for example: <http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/hindutva-groups-attack-pk-screenings-its-an-assault-on-intelligence-not-just-on-a-movie-2021757.html>). Such developments are utterly disturbing, even if on somewhat expected lines. At the same time, the vandals have unwittingly provided some free publicity for PK (see, for example: <http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/5-reasons-why-aamir-khan-pk-must-be-banned/1/410550.html>). Sukla Sen -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
