Tuesday, January 6, 2015

PK Hai Kya?

Watched the Rajkumar Hirani – Aamir Khan movie, PK.

I used to wonder how a movie which has been given the green by the censor board can get so very controversial. Now I understand why a particular sect of our intellectual society considers it mortally dangerous enough to call for a total ban. I totally sympathize with these legal guardians of spirituality. PK, the movie, should be banned.




For one, PK deals with a major issue of our times… the institutionalization of religion. We have self-proclaimed God men, some of whom are highly successful in managing multi crore business enterprises in a very organized manner. They are not restricted to any particular religion or sect, and their success depends on how effectively they are able to touch the emotional quotient of the gullible common man, who are often neck deep in turmoil and look up to them for instant solutions to their problems. PK attacks such spiritual managers with a healthy dose of sarcastic humor. Just think about it.. if someone threatens to ruin your business, wouldn’t you get on the defensive? Wouldn’t you go to any lengths to protect it? So why blame those conditioned souls who are only ensuring their means of survival? Nope. No way. PK should be banned.

Sometimes truth gets very uncomfortable. The fact that the picture of Mahatma Gandhi has value only on a particular type of paper (currency note), is something which hits you right on the face. Again, PK deals with the necessity of having a relationship with God based on love, and not fear. But I guess, if that be the case, most of God’s so called ‘managers’ would run out of business because all they do is capitalize on the fear of the gullible common man who spend fortunes trying to appease God. Well.. it’s a fact, but who is Rajkumar Hirani or Aamir Khan to rub it on us? The larger population of our great country manages problems effectively by pretending they don’t exist. If this is hypocrisy, so be it, but PK should be banned.

We are the population of a great country that upholds cultural values and ethos. Morality plays a big part in shaping our life and lifestyles. Anything that threatens the foundation of this frail culture is a big no. In a country where it is pretty much easy to rape, eve tease, molest, pinch bottoms, grope, and generally get away even with murder, any act that is suggestive of expressing love or physical intimacy between a man and a woman is not acceptable. How on earth do we permit a lip to lip kiss between the protagonists of the movie? (Let us ignore the fact that we belong to an ancient civilization that among others, has witnessed the birth of great Hindu men like Vatsyayana and Jayadeva who had penned amazing treatises).  It is bad enough that PK features love (love jihad?)  between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, but nothing could get more sacrilegious than the fact that the man happens to be a Pakistani. A Pakistani!!! God! PK should be banned without doubt.


Hey! Those of you who haven’t watched the movie yet, and are not convinced that PK disrespects Hinduism and everything connected with it, that PK ridicules our culture and tradition, that PK is a blot to our social views and a threat to our innate logical mindsets, why don’t you go watch the movie? After that, let us all stand up and call for a ban against anything remotely sensible in society. Let us all get together to curb the creative freedom of people, let us encourage our children to discriminate one another on the basis of caste, and more importantly, let us proudly admit the fact that we have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.

7 comments:

  1. Excellent post, sarcasm rules!
    I haven't watched the movie, so can't comment on it directly. But you make two excellent larger points. One, the shameless hypocrisy of our society; people are waiting for an excuse to be offended by anything and everything when there are serious matters to take offense to right under their noses. Second, intolerance to all things creative. Banning books, movies, even artists. How did we end up here?

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  2. Excellent one Priya...!! U said it in the apt way....!!!!

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  3. Well said priya.......!!!!:)

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  4. But why is it that it is only us who are crtical of our own views, is it 'cos maybe we are more broad minded and inclusive. So let me ask you did the British do good for our country or did they destroy us, what do you think. Did the moghuls do us good or did the exploit us and destroy more of us.

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  5. Priya Aunty, that was a good one what you wrote here. We tend to look at things a lot lot seriously sometimes. You know the role of Aamir in this movie right? He's an alien from another planet who knows nothing about earth and slowly learns the language. But if you look it the the way he looks at it, i don't think it's very wrong. Look at the movie from his point of view and not from our cultural and religious ways. After all its just a movie and i enjoyed it. There's no need to ban this movie if people take it in the right sense and not creating stupid controversies under the name of religion or culture

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  6. Priya Aunty, that was a good one what you wrote here. We tend to look at things a lot lot seriously sometimes. You know the role of Aamir in this movie right? He's an alien from another planet who knows nothing about earth and slowly learns the language. But if you look it the the way he looks at it, i don't think it's very wrong. Look at the movie from his point of view and not from our cultural and religious ways. After all its just a movie and i enjoyed it. There's no need to ban this movie if people take it in the right sense and not creating stupid controversies under the name of religion or culture

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  7. Priya, your sarcasm is all well and good. Just answer one question. While PK, offending the sensibilities of many Hindus, was fully approved by the Censor Board, headed by one Ms. Leela Samson, a Christian (she went about destroyed Hindu symbols when she was head of Kalakshetra, but that is another story), another movie in Malayalam dealing with Catholic priests and pedophile subjects is still languishing not getting the approval of the Censor Board. Kamala Hasan had to cut some scenes in Viswaroopam just because some Muslim groups objected to some scenes. You tell me what should this Malayalee do to get his picture released?

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