Yesterday, we watched a Hindi movie – “Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani”. While the overall movie was really nice and enjoyable, there were some parts of the movie which I found very uncomfortable.
The hero of the movie is a pure vegetarian. His friends convince him that he should take to non-vegetarian food since the Christian girl he is after is “strictly non-vegetarian” (whatever that means). In the next scene, they show an elaborate initiation ceremony where our Hero struggles but somehow manages to eat chicken, mutton, etc. The next scene is where the Hero, after one week, is gorging on a variety of animals! His parents spot him and feel very upset. He then goes to a Church and offers his confession there. He says that since he has broken his “Dharma” by eating non-veg, Bhole Naath (Lord Shiva) is now very upset with him. He says if Bhole Nath opens his third eye, then he will become “bus bus” (burnt). He requests Jesus to protect him and get him the girl!
In the final scene of the movie, the Hero is leaving the city as he thinks he will never get the girl. The girl meanwhile has a change of heart and, failing to find the hero, goes to a church and starts praying. Our hero is stopped on a lonely road by a truck driver, dressed like Jesus. The driver tells him that he is a stage actor dressed as Jesus and forces him to get into the truck. The driver brings him to the same Church where the lady is praying and lo and behold, vanishes suddenly. The Hero realizes that Jesus himself has brought him to his lady!
Somehow, I couldn’t help but appreciate the skill with which propaganda and comedy were intermixed in this movie.
Filed under: Religion | Tagged: church, movie, propaganda, shiva
I haven’t seen the movie, but I have seen the non-vegetarian promos that you mentioned. I find it funny how the director/writer puts in the word “Dharma” in that particular context when probably he’s never even bothered to understand it! If he did, he would have known that Hindu Dharma isn’t only about Bhole nath opening his third eye to “bhus bhus” people. Hindu Dharma provides a greater scope for individual redemption that people choose not to know about. May be they haven’t heard of Ajamila’s story when they were young!
Secondly, I am sure the movie is targeted at the youngistan generation which is more comfortable with the concept of confessions than prayaschitta. The director is plainly playing to the gallery here. The gallery is composed of a large bunch of fun-loving people who prefer simpler ways of redemption so that they can utilize the remainder of their time to have fun.
Hence, the confessions, the church, the driver dressed as Jesus and all that. After all it’s an amazing story about crazy love, right ?!
Namaskara Gautam,
While the movie may be targeted at the Youngistan generation, the problem is with the message being passed. If youngistan is indeed the target – they are being told that all they need to do is to switch over for all their problems to get sorted.
And the movie doesn’t show a driver dressed as Jesus. They show Jesus actually coming down and helping him!
Maybe I am overworking my brains in being critical of this movie, but I have just become oversensitive to such issues of late
Regards, Hari
Namaskara Hari,
You say
“If youngistan is indeed the target – they are being told that all they need to do is to switch over for all their problems to get sorted.”
Probably that’s because the problem runs deeper. Youngistan prefers such easy solutions. Whether effective or not, that’s another question. Whether it really addresses their problem or not is yet another question. But they want a solution, and they want it packaged in the way which is comfortable to them.
Look at other “socially relevant” movies like Rang De Basanti or Lage Raho Munnabhai. While the former advocated solutions which involved not understanding the constitutional provisions to fix it, the latter advocated extremely simplistic solutions repackaged as “Gandhigiri”.
>>Maybe I am overworking my brains in being critical of this movie, but I have just become over-sensitive to such issues of late
I feel it is an sensitive issue and it worries me whenever I see such a message being perpetrated either through the medium of movies, talk shows or books.
I think this was still very foolish for them to do that. There are lot of Hindus who relish on non veg food. Its based on the various beliefs and nature too. Hindu religion is very close to how nature is and how it should work well. I agree with you, some sort of very inconviencing “moral of story” was driven. It was more a propoganda and not a love story.
The sequence in the movie was indirectly also hurting the emotions of Brahmin families(Pandit family)
You are right. I have not seen this issue being publicised much. Even I felt hurt in the part where the HERO asks for help from Jesus. But the good part is that he says ‘aap aur bholenath achhe dost ho’. But definitely the director could have been more sensitive towards the sensitivities of hindus as well. Also it propagates misinformation about hindu gods. Shiva means ‘innocence’ and he is the very form of love. How can he (symbolically) hurt anybody, especially if the person worships him. Hinduism does not have this philosophy of punishment by GOD, it is only the philosophy of karma which works. Christianity works more on the philosophy of GOD punishing evil, etc.