Everyone by now, the one who follow Indian
popular cinema, has heard about the movie by Raju Hirani called "PK."
The movie created controversy, mostly post release, for being an
Anti-Hindu movie. For all its anti-hindu bias, the movie has become one
of the major hit in hindi movies. The box office collection of the movie
has been a record breaking collection. So is the movie at hit because of
the controversy or is it a hit because of a great story telling that has
connected with the masses. I have seen the movie and I hope the second is
not the reason for its success.
Here are my reasons. First of all,
the movie seems to be made for masses and as someone has put it - masses are
asses. Now I don't mean to say that masses, the ones who have gone and
seen the movie, are asses. Some probably just went to see the movie
because of the controversy and probably because of the lead actor.
Luckily, like our great leader in Uttar Pardesh, I was able to see a copy of
the movie on the internet without paying. My disclaimer - I actually saw
someone play the movie while I just stood behind them to watch the whole
thing. I don't condone piracy.
Alright, back to the merits of the
movie. The movie is terrible. The direction is bad as is the acting
by the leads and the script has holes as big as the spaceship that landed Pint
Khan in the movie's opening scene. In the words of a character in (unrelated
movie) "Tropic Thunder" - "one should never go full retard"
and Ammir Khan with his wide eyed look is pretty close to it. And I guess
that wide eye look is to convey the child-like innocence or how the alien will
be bewildered with all the chaos on the planet. I digress.
Say if you were to ever land a space ship
on another planet, will you go there knowing the composition of the living
organism on that planet. Since on earth 99% of living organisms are made
up of four elements (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen), will the living
matter have similar composition on another planet? Without knowing
(because no probes were sent earlier) the environment you will be landing into,
will it make sense to just come naked? Say even if you are naked on the
planet you lived on, will you not need special suit out in space. Yes
forget all the logic and think of it as an allegorical idea. As a child comes
to this world naked, we have a child like alien who comes to this planet
naked. I get it, so deep at a very shallow level. Past all that,
the alien that is sent to earth comes doesn't come across as an explorer but
comes across as a village idiot who is probably is sent to earth because they
had enough of him at his home planet. Again, no clothes are worn on
alien's planet but it appears they like to hang technology on around a neck,
not like a bracelet or a ring. I guess so someone can snatch it and run
away. This appears to be all part of lazy writing.
Second, as soon as “PK” lands, he wants to
make a contact with an earthling. When you make a contact, even with
animals or things that you never seen, you do it cautiously and not full blown
frontal attack. Not with this alien. This alien goes for full charge
towards an unknown human. Then his necklace gets snatched by his first
contact on earth. Alien chases him and in process he gets snatcher's
radio (two in one type). In India, do they still carry that around?
I doubt it but say because of the lazy writing that Indians do carry old two in
one around, my question to the writer of the movie, why will an alien
space ship drop its explorer in a desert? Oh, because of not wanting to
get caught with gazing eyes. Aren't
their other deserts that are more secluded or isolated? This again
appears to be lazy writing (wrong number).
Now coming back to first theme of the
movie – don’t follow blindly. It appears to me that the alien falls for
same trap as most westerners fall for when they observe Hindu rituals and
practices. And most likely, like missionaries, their whole agenda is to put
down these practices. So coming from a Hindu director and writer, this is
not surprising. One, Hindus over the period of time have developed
inferiority complex when it comes to the other faiths (both of Indian Origin
and from the outside). They have been told many times that Idol worshiping
is wrong. Their love and respect for cows is silly. The Hindus, of
all the groups, appear to be least rigid when it comes to accepting different viewpoints.
For being accepting of various viewpoints, for that reason alone, it is also a
religion, that to some appear to have most "andh vishwas" or blind
faith. Oh wait..two of the main religion on this planet work on blind
faith or require absolute faith with no questioning - Islam and
Christianity. Do you think those two religion were ridiculed in the
movie? Nope. Ok, to be fair, what they did try to ridicule for
those to religion were not the religion itself but just some of the
practices. Shiite in Islam are already considered aberration by sunnis
and so is that self flagellation procession that is shown in the movie.
About Christianity, two instances are shown, but they are not ridiculing the
religion but mostly the ritual. One is the baptization (dipping into holy
water) and the second is the Eucharist thing where the wine is given as blood
of Christ. Well that, and mention of original sin. Islam is hardly
criticized. And coming back to the point of not following on "andh
Vishwas", aren't Christianity and Islam asking for blind faith. Why
not ridicule the whole concept of these two faiths? The two biggest religions
in the world also operate like an organized crime syndicate. They don't
allow free criticism of their beliefs.
Let us continue with the second theme of
the movie. One of the other idea that movie wants to convey is that you
don't need an intermediary between "GOD" and yourself. In the
movie, they are using this Godmen (Sai Baba) type guy as an intermediary who is
taking advantage of people. I have no problem with Raju Hirani ridiculing
Sai Baba type con men taking advantage of gullible people. My only issue,
the two religion that actually are based on having an intermediary between god
and human is Islam and Christianity but no criticism toward them. Isn't
the whole church organization just that - an intermediary between god and human
being?
The movie is poorly scripted with agenda
driven drivel. The script is pretty much what you will see on a
missionary pamphlet on why Hinduism is wrong. I have heard the arguments
that one should go to movie to enjoy and not necessarily to get some sorts of
message. Here though the director wants to convey a message and the movie
itself is agenda driven. A message about not following blindly and using
your intellect is fine and a good message but I doubt this movie is doing that
if it is leaving out the two biggest culprits of non-thinking and blind faith -
Christianity and Islam. I would rather have bunch of people believing in
crap then having people who based on their religious faith will commit
genocide. I don't find Lord of the Rings followers to be harmful but I do
find faithful like the ISIS types and the missionary types to be cancerous.
For that reason alone, I don't find the Hinduism to be as harmful as the other
faith based, only truth type religions to be poisonous. Though, I am not
comparing Hinduism to LOTR. Hinduism has much deeper meaning to the
stories that are labeled myths. I do find Hinduism less of a bane to
humanity then the two Abhramic and expansionist religions
Final verdict, yes watch the movie if you
must. Try not to spend too much to see it. Watch it for free if you
can like Akhlesh Yadav. The money you would have spent on the ticket
price would be better spent if you gave it to genuine charity like Indian
Development and Relief fund. To combat the hypocrisy of the movie, do
what it is asking its viewers - don't follow blindly. Don't go see the
movie at the theatre because bunch of sheeps have been bamboozled to watch the
crap. Watch the movie for free and then just like the movie ask to not
waste money by donating at the temple, don't waste the money on the ticket
price but spend that money for an honest charity. Like the kitschy line
of the movie - don't dial this "wrong number."
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