Pathan movie is Hindu-phobic, and should we watch this movie?
Is the Pathan film declared Hindu-phobic? Shah Rukh Khan’s new film, Pathaan, is about to be released on January 25th. and the way this film was targeted. perhaps on other in our nation was targeted so bad. Several months ago, when even the teaser for this film wasn’t released, some people were trying to protest against this film. and when the song “Besharam Rang” filmed on Deepika Padukone came out, the targeting reached an extreme level. “We have burned Shah Rukh Khan’s poster, and I’m seeing if I can get my hands on him, Jihadi Shah Rukh Khan.” The ruckus is caused by the #boycottBollywood narrative, where some people claim that Bollywood films are Hindu-phobic. The entire Bollywood industry is against all Hindus; it attacks Hinduism, and Muslims are always portrayed in a positive light in Bollywood films. Pathaan isn’t the first film to face such allegations. previously, several other films have been accused similarly. Boycott trends had been started. Laal Singh Chaddha, Shamshera, Raksha Bandhan, Brahmastra, Tandav, Aashram, Article 15, Ludo, A Suitable Boy, Laxmi Even before these “Sacred Games,” Leila, Toofan, PK, Oh My God, and Kedarnath, this list of so-called Hindu-phobic organizations keeps getting longer with each passing day. apart from films. Some songs are also termed anti-Hindu these days, such as Radha from Student of the Year. some twitter accounts have also popped up, that share clips from old films, that share clips from old films, to say that the film that you watched 10 or even 20 years ago, was Anti-Hindu. I’m not kidding. They’re targeting films from the 1980s and 1990s and tagging them as anti-Hindu. films like Sholay, Deewar, Vaastav, and Karan Arjun. they are looking up scenes in these in these to share to claim that it was Anti-Hindu. The question arises: Is Bollywood truly anti-Hindu? Before we investigate the whole Bollywood industry, let’s talk about Pathaan.
Why was the film Pathaan declared hindu-phobic?
This controversy took off when the song “Besharam Rang” was released. In this song, Deepika Padukone wore different colored costumes. one of them was saffron/orange coloured. The people who were offended said that the words “Besharam Rang” claimed that the color saffron is shameless. that we’re saying “Orange” should be ashamed. So the question is, in the Bollywood film Pathaan’s song Besharam Rang, what does the lyricist mean by the term “shameless colors”? There’s another song in which the color orange is used. We need to decode that as well. “Baby is dancing drunk on beer.“ It’s weird that whenever someone has a connection with the BJP, someone feels offended. all the boycott hashtags disappear. Is it true that the people running this boycott narrative are affiliated with a political party? What do you think? Whenever people like Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan are involved in something, suddenly the floodgates are thrown open, and they get hurt to such an extent that they want to let others know how offended they are. “They wanted to show a shameless color; they’ll have to face criticism now.” Why didn’t they show green? The color isn’t shameful. “Shah Rukh Khan is!”
Shah Rukh Khan, a Muslim, is married to a Hindu woman named Gouri. an actor who visits Mecca as well as the Vaishno Devi shrine. He celebrates both Eid and Diwali. In his films, he has played numerous Hindu characters. whether that’s Rahul or Raj. but he has also played numerous Muslim characters as well. whether that’s in “My name is Khan” or “Chak de India.” In his home, they practice Hindu worship and Muslim worship. and to the world he represents India. In 2015, Shah Rukh Khan made a statement saying that religious intolerance is a terrible thing. If it increases, India will be pushed into the dark ages. “In our country, we keep on talking about religion. we’re gonna go back to the dark ages.” that’s sensible. After all, which country would benefit from religious intolerance? but based on this one statement, Shah Rukh Khan was labeled “anti-national” by BJP politician Kailash Vijayvargiya. VHP member Prachi called SRK a Pakistani agent. “Shah Rukh is definitely a Pakistani agent.“ and UP’s CM Adityanath, compared SRK with the terrorist Hafiz Saeed. “I see no difference in Shah Rukh Khan’s speeches and Hafiz Saeed’s.“ It’s not surprising that a liberal, secular, Muslim actor like SKR has become very problematic for the religious extremists of both religions. For people who want to divide the country based on religion, this was very problematic for their agenda because the top actor in the country was promoting unity and brotherhood between both religions. This is the real reason; the excuse about color is simply a front. If, for argument’s sake, you believe that orange is a very important color in the Hindu religion, you can ask which color they could have used if not orange. If you use the color blue, blue is also an important color in religion. the color of Lord Shiva. He is known as Neelkanth. yellow? That’s the color of Lord Krishna’s clothes, Pitambar. If you use green, they’ll claim that it is the color of Muslims. So which color remains? Shall we go back to making black-and-white films? and then they’ll start having problems with the color black as well. because black is the color of Lord Krishna. In fact, the word “Krishn” means black. Anyway, this is a completely farcical issue.
What about the allegations, where Bollywood films are said to be Hinduphobic?
Some problematic instances can be pointed out. a soulful devotional song from 1960 “Madhuban me Radhika Nache re Giridhar ki Murali Baje Re”. Interestingly, this song was composed by three Muslims. singer Mohammad Rafi, lyricist Shakeel Badayuni, and music composer Naushad Dilip Kumar, the actor in this song, is also Muslim. This is India’s beauty. but about 60 years later, another song was released with the same title, in the form of an item song. “Nache Radhika Madhuban me.” Objectification of women like this poses a separate issue. But the question here is: why was this devotional song chosen? And why did they have to use the name Radhika? Instead of Radhika, they could have used any other name. such as Premika, Kanika, Navita, and Jessica. without altering the song. and this happened, after this was subjected to a controversy. They changed Radhika in Madhuban to Premika in Panghat. similarly, in a recent film india’s most wanted, that was said to be inspired from real incidents, most probably by the real life arrest of the terrorist Yaseen Bhatkal. But the trailer for this film showed the terrorist quoting verses from the Quran and the Gita. Does this make any sense? to show this? because, realistically, this wouldn’t have happened. For this film, the CBFC ordered that the parts with the religious verses be removed from the film. and it was later removed. Additionally, many films and TV shows are based on fake religious men. such as Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Asaram, Rampal, Mirchi Baba, Jalebi Baba, and many such fraud saints. Who can people accuse in the name of religion? If a film or web series is made exposing them, I don’t think that’s wrong. They are a bane to any religion. and are insults to the religion. So films like PK and Oh My God, or web series like Aashram, believe that they are very useful to society.
But at the same time, the one that I consider problematic is the sacred games. a popular web series on Netflix, in which it showed that the police and RAW were trying to crush an underworld don. In it, there’s a preacher who likes to repeat the hymn “Aham Brahmasmi,” which is the central thought of Vedanta. that all does are the manifestation of god. But the way this phrase was misused in this series, it was not necessary. They could have easily used any other phrase. and nothing would have changed in the story. You will definitely find such individual examples in the films and TV series that can be considered problematic. but the propaganda that’s being spread hare, by the troll army, will make you think as if the film producers, actors, and the OTT platforms, are involved in a weekly secret meeting, where they discuss how they could target Hinduism. that they make strategies and plans to include elements in their film to hurt Hindu sentiments. This doesn’t happen. to impose such an imagination into your mind, you are repeatedly shown false, out of context narratives. for example, “Love Jihad.” they repeatedly claim that Bollywood promotes love Jihad. as an example, they claim that in SRK’s film, My name is Khan, a Hindu girl gets married to a Muslim boy. In Kedarnath, Sushant Singh Rajput’s Film, Hindu girl and Muslim guy. Hritik Roshan’s Jodha Akbar, Akshay Kumar’s Atrangi Re, and Laxmi They put these examples in front of you to make you think that they make a good point. But does anyone show you examples from the other side? the same number of, if not sure, reverse examples can be seen. In SKR’s Veer Zaara, the boy was Hindu and the girl was Muslim. Saif Ali Khan’s Agent Vinod Hindu man, Muslim girl Ishqzaade, Saawariya, same story with Ek tha Tiger, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Ranbir Kapoor Hindu, Anushka Sharma Muslim. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Raanjhana, The Hero: A Love Story of a Spy
You can find numerous such examples. Similarly, you will also find examples where there’s a Hindu boy and a Christian girl. Race 3, Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani, Sagar, Bobby, and them there are examples where the boy is a Sikh and the girl a Muslim. such as Gadar, an all-time blockbuster. The same thing was shown in Mausam as well. Shahid Kapoor’s film The people running the “boycott Bollywood” trend hide their example from you. They want to convince you that something’s wrong with Bollywood. They have reached the point where they are looking up supposedly anti-Hindi elements in classic blockbuster films. in blockbusters like Sholay, Deewar, and Vaastav, where no one had any issues at the time of the release of the film. but now they claim that, the films that were released 30 years ago, as a Hindu, you should be offended while watching the film. The situation has worsened so much that, in a recent film named Hindutva, they had a problem with the film because its name was Hindutva: “This film, Hindutva, is propaganda for secularism and brotherhood; if the scenes aren’t changed in it, no Hindu will go to watch this film.“ propaganda for secularism and brotherhood. When did brotherhood and unity become propaganda? If we stop showing unity in the country, should we show Hindus and Muslims fighting each other? Do they want to show civil wars in the film? people killing each other. they want that? There are individual instances that can be considered problematic.
Why do these happen?
Sometimes it might be a person’s creative choice. that the filmmaker chose it intentionally. or the reason may be mindless behavior—that the filmmaker didn’t think it through before executing it. They didn’t think about the impact it would have or the conclusions that could be drawn from it. Such individual instances aren’t against the Hindu religion only; rather, you can spot them in people from various sections of society. The first example can be said to be the tribal people. Whenever the tribal community is depicted in Bollywood films, they are shown to be very barbaric. that they go about with a spear at all times. and are ready to kill others. have black paint on their faces and sing Jhingalalahu. in several classic films. such as Yeh Gulistan Hamara, Shalimar, and, in fact, in modern films like Bahubali, the tribal community is depicted like this. The same thing can be said about caste. Have you noticed that most of the heroes in Bollywood films are always upper-caste Hindus? Their surnames would often be Sharma, Trivedi, Mishra, Shukla, Dubey, Pandey, Verma, Khanna, Kapoor, and Malhotra. How many films do you know of where the lead character, the main hero of the film, is shown to be a Dalit? The same can be said for Muslims as well. When Muslim characters are shown in Bollywood films, they are depicted in a stereotypical fashion in most films. Either the Muslim would be a suspect, like in Chak de India, My name is Khan, Shahid, New York, or the Muslim would be shown to be a terrorist. Neerja, Fiza, India’s Most Wanted, Mission Kashmir, Kurbaan, or Muslims would be shown as gangsters. Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Raees, Gang of Wasseypur. In the historical films, when Muslim rulers are depicted as invaders, they are given the same type of outfit. Padmavat, Tanhaji, Panipat: can you recall a Muslim character from a Bollywood film where a Muslim character is shown to be a normal person? Similar mindlessness is seen when people of the Sikh community are represented in the films. They are reduced to a caricature. These roles are always a bit dumb and comedic: “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,” “Mohabbeyein,” “Raja Hindustani,” “Singh is King,” “Son of Sardar,” “Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd.”
Not only this, but even regional identities have been stereotyped in Bollywood films. when South Indians are represented. They are mostly shown in the manner they were in films like The Chennai Express. When Haryanvi people are shown, they are always shown to be either wrestling or committing honor killings on the film. Northeasterners find little to no representation in Bollywood films. And when it comes to the portrayal of disabilities, mindless films use disability as a joke. The entire Golmaal series, Mujhse Shadi Karogi, Housefull 3, Crazy 4, Tom Dick and Harry, Phir Hera Pheri, people being blind, deaf, amputees—everything is being made fun of. they are never shown to be a normal part of like, and a normal character in the film might be blind, deaf or an amputee. After hearing all of this, does this mean that Bollywood is not only Hindu-phobic but also ethnically-phobic, Dalit-phobic, Islamophobic, Sikh-phobic, homophobic, South India-phobic, Haryanvi-phobic, Northeast-phobic, and even disability-phobic? We’ll keep on counting all types of phobias here. Rather than that, let’s stick to using only the word “mindless.” When writers add these scenes to the films, they do not pay much attention to them. But as I said, similar to the cases of love jihad and Hinduphobia, these are all individual examples. If you cherry-pick like this, there can be a counterargument as well. films where tribals been portrayed beautifully.
1942’s film Roti, or Mrigya. Films where Muslim characters have been shown to be normal people: 3 Idiots, Zindagi Na Milegi Donara, Bhoom, Iqbal, Rang de Basanti, Gully Boy Films where their their identities went beyond simply being being Muslims. These are films where the LGBTQ plus community has been given proper representatio, My Bother Nikhilm, Aligarh, Fashion, Kapoor and Sons, Badhaai Do, Shubh Mangel Zyada Saavdhan, Ek Ladki ko Dekha to Aisa Laga, Made in Heaven. similarly are films where Sikh characters were represented in an appreciable way, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Broder, Ghazi, Sardar Uddham Singh, and then these are films where disabilities have been shown positively. Black, Barfi, Margarita with a Strew, My Name is Khan, Iqbal, Taare Zameen par, Mukkabaaz, Even Zero, Shah Rukh Khan’s film in Which the person with a disability, interacting with the rest of the world was the central theme. You’d ask if there are such examples in favor of Hinduism as well. absolutely. In fact, most films show Hinduism in a positive light, as compared to the examples I pointed out earlier, which can be considered problematic. Since Hinduism has been the dominant religion in India, even in Bollywood, it is shown everywhere in a positive light. devotional prayers that you sang in school, “Ae Malik Tere Bande Hum, Itni Shakti Hame Dena Data.” O Palan Hare Nirgun Aur Nyare.“ And there’s a long list of these; where did these songs come from? Bollywood. several films become megahits, where religion was a central theme and religion was shown positively.
1975’s Jai Santoshi Maa’s The Ramayana series was a super hit. There was a TV serial on Mahabharat as well. 2007’s My Friend Ganesha, and there were 2 animation films on Hanuman, and now recently, there was a film on Ram Setu. Similarly, there are many films where characters are shown celebrating Hindu festivals. Whether it’s Holi, Diwali, or Dussehra, Mother India, Sholy, Deewana, Mohabbatein, Badrinath ki Dulhaniya, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, Ranjhana, Ram Leela, Toilet-Ek Prem Kahani, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam, Swadesh—songs from these films can often be heard during festivals. These songs have already become part of our tradition. Other Hindu festivals, such as Karva Chauth, are shown in films like DDLJ, Biwi No. 1, Baghan, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Yes boss. if this is showing Hinduism in a positive sense, what will? For comparison, how many films can you think of where Eid, Christmas, Good Friday, or Gura Parab are celebrated by the characters?
The Boycott Bollywood
They may accept that many Bollywood films show Hinduism positively, but they may not like that Hinduism is criticized in some Bollywood films. There are films that depict the social evils in our society. such as Articles 15, Jai Bhim, and Diksha. I’d say these films are masterpieces. If you aren’t a casteist, you will have no problem with these movies. If the social evils in our religions and cultures are depicted, it is a step in the right direction. In history, the same thing was done by Adi Shankaracharya, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, and Swami Vivekanand. They spoke about the problems present during their time, due to which many social evils have been eradicated from the country. such as Sati. This draws in the biggest arguments from the ones boycotting; they point fingers at Islam and ask if there are no social evils in Islam. Why does no one talk about that? Why does no Bollywood film show that? Once again, there are several examples of this. Netflix, Prime Video, and several OTT platforms have these films. Secret Superstar, Lipstick Under My Burqa, Hum do Humare Barah Bol, Earth 1947, Trance, Caliphate, Material, Farha, Breadwinner, The Flower of Aleppo The thing is that the entire narrative of “boycott Bollywood” is worthless. if one has cherry pick individually, i can present films against any topic, or in favour of any topic. Bollywood is such a large industry that you can find tonnes of examples if you want to call Bollywood Hindu-phobic, Islamophobic, tribal-phobic, or Dalit-phobic. On the other hand, there are tons of examples if you want to present Bollywood as progressive. It has films favoring tribals, Hindus, and Sikhs because Bollywood is an industry that represents the soft power of India. This is why it makes no sense to boycott the entire industry. The things that are problematic, the scenes in the films that are problematic, only those should be protested against. To imagine that there is a big conspiracy in Bollywood against Hindus is simply laughable. Because, as I told you, Hinduism is widely celebrated in Bollywood. and is still being done so.
QNA
- What is the budget of Pathan movie?
The film budget of Pathan movie is rs 250 crores, and if we convert it to dollars then it will be 30655100 dollars
- What is the story of Pathan movie?
Pathan films will have a dystopian setting as well as a criminal thriller. According to reports, the film’s scenes will include footage shot in and around the Middle East. As a powerful drug lord, John Abraham will play the villain.
- What is the 2 day collection of Pathan?
The first day earnings of Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan films are around Rs 57 crores, and if we talk about its second day, then it will be between Rs 62 to Rs 66 crores.