A Muslim-Hindu movie kiss? Outrageous, some Pakistanis say
By Salman Masood The New York Times
Monday, March 28, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan With her sultry good looks and her slinky dance moves, the
Pakistani star who calls herself Meera has won the adoration of moviegoers
here.
.
But now she is afraid for her life. Her crime: The Indian news media reported
that she had kissed an Indian actor onscreen while starring in an Indian film.
To top it off, the actor in question, Ashmit Patel, is a Hindu.
.
The film, "Nazar," by the Indian director Soni Radzan and her husband, the
producer Mahesh Bhatt, has not yet been released, but the report that Meera
kisses Patel in the film, which hit the news media last month, has brought a
storm of criticism.
.
Local news channels repeatedly flashed snippets of the movie: him leaning
toward her, their lips coming closer, her letting out a heavy sigh. But then,
because censors do not permit a kiss to be shown on Pakistani television, the
picture turns fuzzy and the rest is left to the imagination.
.
Conservative Islamists are incensed at the thought of a Muslim woman's kissing
a Hindu. Some have called for an apology; others have filed a lawsuit,
demanding that she be censured for an "immoral scene," though it is unclear
what the court could do if it agreed. Still others have issued death threats.
.
Meera, who says she is 24, acknowledged in a telephone interview that she had
kissed the actor, though she has indicated in other interviews that she did
not. She denied, though, that there are any "vulgar or bold" scenes in the
movie. "It is a baseless controversy," she said in the interview from Karachi,
the southern port city where she has been staying since her return from India
on March 9.
.
Her own actions in the movie, she insisted, were in keeping with what her
character demanded. "Acting means freedom of expression," she said.
.
Trouble dogged her in India last week, too, as she landed at an airport in New
Delhi on Wednesday, at the invitation of Bhatt, who also wrote the film's
script, only to be told by the immigration authorities that her visa was valid
for arrival only in Mumbai. She was detained for several hours, then allowed to
stay.
.
Meera, who has starred in 56 Pakistani films since her start in the movie
business in 1996, is no stranger to steamy scenes. Pakistani films, like Indian
ones, are rife with suggestive song-and-dance numbers in which the heroine,
sometimes wrapped in a wet sari, makes provocative, hip-thrusting moves.
.
"Maybe they wanted me to work in the movie wearing a burka," she said,
referring to the head-to-toe cloak worn by some Muslim women.
.
"I have an open mind. I don't have to ask people what to do, what to wear, what
hairstyle to keep."
.
Nevertheless, she and her family, who live in Lahore, say they have received
countless intimidating phone calls in the last month. She has said she will not
return to Lahore unless Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf,
guarantees her safety. "I need protection," she said. "I am scared to go to
Lahore."
.
Officially, it is illegal to show Indian movies in Pakistan's theaters, but
there is a huge black market for them. People watch them on cassettes or DVDs,
and Indian film stars are household names.
.
The few Pakistani movie theaters that have not already been turned into
shopping malls are pressing for the right to show Bollywood pictures. Theater
owners are threatening to go on strike over the issue.
.
Some Pakistanis have expressed surprise that the reports about Meera's film
have caused so much criticism. "'Nazar' frankly contained nothing more
licentious than any Pakistani film," Hasan Zaidi wrote this month in Dawn, an
English-language daily.
.
.
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