Just Because Aamir Khan Happens To Be A Muslim.....
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
18 August
2022
There Seems
To Be Something Terribly Wrong With This Country; Bollywood, Which Used To Be
Completely Non-Communal Until A Few Years Ago, Has Fallen Prey to Divisive
Forces
-----
Aamir
Khan's ' Laal Singh Chaddha'
-----
“The
scars and prejudices of race and religion run too deep in the hearts of
people."
-James
Baldwin, Afro-American novelist
The
'culture of boycott' is now a potent weapon of the majority (read Hindus) in
India who're resorting to it to 'teach a lesson' to Muslim actors. Aamir Khan's
' Laal Singh Chaddha' is being panned by Hindus who're still miffed with
him for saying a few years ago that his then wife, Kiran Rao, felt unsafe in
India. She was right. In fact, she's all the more right, nay spot-on, in
today's polarised India. [By the way, Aamir Khan had quoted his then wife and
said that her thought of leaving India was a disastrous idea.] The heroine
Kareena Kapoor is also being criticized and abused as she's the wife of Saif
Ali Khan.
There seems
to be something terribly wrong with this country. Bollywood, which used to be
completely non-communal until a few years ago, has fallen prey to divisive
forces. Emboldened by the grand success of his film 'Kashmir Files', Vivek
Agnihotri is blatantly maligning the image of Aamir.
Earlier,
cine-goers and actors never cared for an artiste's religion and his or her
beliefs. Now, actors are being condemned for belonging to a specific faith and
making some obscure statements in the long past. This is indeed a worrisome
trend which, if not stemmed in time, will engulf the Bombay Film Industry.
My point
is: Why trollers are boycotting a ' Muslim ' actor's film? Aamir has always
been an affable and sincere actor. One unguarded statement shouldn't be his
undoing.
Did India
of the past ever care for Dilip Kumar or Muhammad Rafi's religion? Did people
boycott Waheeda Rahman and Meena Kumari's films even during the Indo-Pak wars
in 1965 and 1971? Even during the Kargil skirmishes in 1999, all Khans were doing
well in Bollywood and masses were watching their movies without caring for
their religion.
Then why
this communal frenzy in these times when communication and connectivity are far
better, faster and quicker?
The
community consciousness of today's India is too acute and skewed. The binary of
communal equation is disturbingly obvious.
Why're
those who want to watch Aamir Khan's movie being dissuaded and discouraged by
the Hindu zealots?
A movie is
a piece of art, even if it's awful. Let people watch and decide. Don't try to
influence and vitiate the minds of the movie-goers beforehand. You can settle
your old scores later. Don't spoil a movie. The fate of so many innocent people
and crew is also associated with a film. Be kind to them and use your brains if
you've any.
Bringing
religion in every issue is a sickening trend that must be stopped forthwith.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/aamir-muslim-lal-singh-chaddha/d/127734
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