The PK Movie Controversy in 1 image and WHY SOME HINDU GROUPS GOT UPSET
By Sanket Patil
Before I go further, a few things;
- This is not a review. This is a critique of the film. So it is about the story/concept that the film wishes to convey and not about the actors or their acting.
- I do not mean to insult any religion/belief system. I hold every religion in high regard and being a follower of Swami Vivekananda, believe that all religions should ascend to godhead within their own framework without converting others.
- This is about the impression that I got about the film. It is my point of view.
I am amazed this movie was not banned by RSS’s protests or protested against by some other so called ‘Right Wing’ group. This movie asks a lot of uncomfortable questions and 90% of this movie derides Hinduism. The movie is highly biased against Hinduism, here is why;
- One would think that the director/story writer has put Christianity, Islam and other religions just to ensure he doesn’t get caught maligning only Hinduism! This is because of the sheer amount of Hinduism that is shown in the film exceeds all the other religions. I think it is only fair to give every religion equal/similar importance. Or does the film want to convey that it is only Hinduism that has a lot of ‘wrong numbers’?
- A Hindu Guru is shown spewing poison against other religions. He is shown as a fraud whose only aim is to make money. In contrast, no religious leader/guru of any other religion is shown.
- Shiva, one of the most important gods in Hinduism is made fun of for considerable length of time. In contrast, other religions are not subjected to such intense scrutiny or derided against.
- It shows many practices which are an integral part of Hinduism such as Murti worship, circumambulation of a temple, rath yatra, donation etc. It questions the integrity of these practices without trying to understand the intent behind them. However, the no other religious practices/observances apart from those of Hinduism are questioned to such an extent.
It is obvious that the playing field is tilted and has a lot of bias against Hinduism. Now coming to what the movie wants to convey;
- Religion is not good. It is created by us human beings and is very parochial. Religious people are like a frog in a well, thinking that their own well is the entire world and calling the frog from the ocean a fool! All religions claim their own version of God to be true and rest all as untrue. This is the basis of all religious strife.
- It is better to believe in the God who is all inclusive and the one who ‘created’ this universe with thousands of stars and planets rather than the petty gods that require petty beliefs.
- Human beings are not different from animals. Human beings have complicated their lives by bringing in religion, money and other things. Human beings are better off living like animals. This analogy is given by PK when Jaggu opines that it would feel odd to roam around naked in PK’s planet. PK then points out that a crow is not ashamed of its nakedness and it is only natural way of things with animals. But a crow would look odd with a tie. This analogy reduces human beings to the level of animals.
My opinion is as follows;
- This film does not touch the intricate philosophy of any religion. It touches upon what I would call a ‘premature concept of religion’ – with the protagonist asking for God’s intervention in gaining a material object. The story writer/director has a very poor idea of Hinduism. The idea of God that the film portrays is that of a God having a separate existence from creation; i.e. a God who has created world separate from himself. This is not what Hinduism believes. The movie completely ignores the core philosophy of Hinduism and portrays it as a religion of blind superstitious followers.
- The movie does not dwell even a bit on positive aspects of any religion. It ignores the universal appeal, inclusiveness and inherent secularism of Hindu philosophy. It does injustice to Hinduism since Hinduism regards God as something which transcends the material universe. In Advaita Philosophy, God is Brahman – the supreme consciousness without any attribute that pervades everything and material universe is but an infinite part of that consciousness; but this in no way lessens the infinity of Brahman! This does not sound like a religion which is exclusive and parochial! But the writer/director chooses to ignore it.
- If human beings were just animals, then we would be just looking for food and procreation. We wouldn’t have bothered about morality, shame, guilt, love, spirituality, science and lots of other stuff! The very fact that we can discern what is good/bad makes us something apart and higher from animals. Dharmic religions (all religions that originated in India and have dharma as their basis viz Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism etc.) are the only religions in the world which boldly declare that we have the divine spark, that we are the children of immortal bliss and that all human beings irrespective of their religion, caste, colour or creed are potentially divine! I shudder to think what the world would be reduced to if the thought ‘Humans are no different from animals’ gets mainstream.
Hypocrisy displayed by the banning of other Bollywood movies that offended other religious groups
Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raj Kumar Hirani have made some good films in the past. They have established themselves as one of the best director/writer pairs in Bollywood. This was the reason why there was so much speculation and hype about this film. However, if you watch the trailer, you will not understand what the film is about! It seems to be intentionally misguided so as to draw a huge crowd to the theatres and then stereotype and deride one of the major religions of the world. This is cliché and what the so called western intelligentsia have been doing to Hinduism and India for a long time. I just hope people see through it!
This piece seems to miss the entire point.
Firstly, wrt the Da Vinci code, a few Christian groups protested, and the release of the film was delayed by a week but eventually it released in cinemas across the country without incident.
I’m not very familiar with the Vishwa roopam case but I agree that it should not be banned.
now coming to PK, the film wasn’t an attack on Hinduism at all. It was an satire on the idiotic religious practices that people blindly follow. It is an Indian film and India is a country in which 80%+ of the population is Hindu so I dont see anything wrong with keeping the focus on Hindu practices.
The film Oh My God did the same.
That being said, I agree that there is an element of hypocrisy among people who are extra careful not to offend certain groups of people but not so sensitive when it comes to others.
My opinion is that freedom of expression cannot exist without freedom to offend and so we must offend.
The “guru” shown in the film is actually a reasonably accurate depiction of many godmen that exist all over the country and command very large followings. Spewing venom against other religions, asking people to do unreasonable things and sacrifices, “magically” producing objects out of thin air are very common practices among these people.
The author also seems to be quite naively arrogant.
“This film does not touch the intricate philosophy of any religion. It touches upon what I would call a ‘premature concept of religion’ ”
Really? What % of the general population truly understand “intricate philosophy” of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Vedanta etc?
Lets assume for a second that this author is a truly enlightened being who a deep understanding of Hindu philosophy etc… then the object of PK’s satire is not this author.
It is naive to assume that everybody is as “wise and enlightened” as him/ her.
A very large section of people go to temples, do havans etc to ASK for something: happiness, success, good grades, a good job, safety, money, good eligible husband/ wife etc. You may not like it being put this way but thats basically the essence of it.
The point of PK is that while religion does give people hope, the way people blindly follow certain practices that are often detrimental to them and at the profit of such gurus and godmen are the “wrong number”
Somebody give this guy a medal! It was a good read..
Very appropriate summation. Thanks for speaking up against this mockery.
vishad
kute just to show urself cool
tu kyab kah raha thoda judge to kar le
Vishad – You seem to be a blind person who has no idea how is Hinduism being derided in this film. The film almost entirely concentrates on Hinduism. As far Vishwroopam – why don’t you just Google and see what did Muslim groups in TN did with it? Do you know Kamaal Dhamaal Mamaal was cut short because only a few pastors from Mumbai raise their voice against a scene in the movie? The problem is most of Hindus are dumb and they don’t read and research. They don’t even read what their scriptures say. Even educated ones are illiterate in terms of religious knowledge. When they do not know about their own religion how can you expect them to know about other religions and how these other religions have been trying to malign Hindu religion and trying to convert Hindus through propaganda polluting our minds.
Malayalam film Pithavinum Puthranum, a film about that explores the inner yearnings of a nun who dreams of colorful dress and the brightness of life just because the film was likely to hurt the religious sentiments of the Christian community was also not passed by censor board when Lila Samson, a Christian by faith, a Sonia stooge was the chairman of Censor Baord.