Ram Puniyani
The release of Vishwaroopam, the
latest film from Kamal Haasan was mired in controversies. (Feb 2013). Haasan
decided to arrange a pre-screening for some groups, despite the film being
cleared by the censors. These Muslim groups raised lots of objections and
demanded for the ban on the film. As matters unfolded, these groups agreed for
the release of the film after some cuts in the film, which the renowned
actor-producer did and film went on to get very good response on the box
office.
The demand for ban was totally
out of place and unwarranted. The cutting of some scenes and the background
recitation of Quran, before and after the acts of terror, was done by the
producer. .Film all through creates the feel that Quran is the source of
inspiration for violence. Though Haasan went on to say that the film is a
tribute to Indian Muslims, as such the film falls in the trap of the
Islamophobia created by America ,
American media and media here at home. Briefly, in the film the hero helps the US troops
against Taliban forces and helps in the Americans in preventing the blast by
Muslim group. An analysis of script of the film can be summed up by stating
that the hero of the film, a Muslim working with RAW; is a very conscientious
person out to save the World from the terror created by Muslim groups. Some
writers have summed it up by saying that the film tries to portray ‘one good
Muslims and all other bad Muslims’. It leaves an impression that the terrorist
Muslim groups are creating problem all over and US is the savior, its agencies
trying to protect US and the World from these dastardly acts. Film also roughly
goes on to portray that Muslim children are given the arms training right from
childhood, and Quran is their training manual for these acts of terror.
While one knows the impeccable
secular credentials of both the lead actors of the film, Kamal Haasan and Rahul
Bose; still the film is based on the script which is very superficial in its
attempt with tackling the problem of terrorism. It’s not that it is the first
film trying to grapple with the phenomenon of terror. There had been earlier
attempts to deal with the theme, some of them doing a commendable job to go
beyond the obvious in unraveling the deeper causes of terror then restricting
to the understanding that terrorism is to Islam itself. Films like New York, My
Name is Khan, Tere bin Laden Aamir and others did a good job as the script
writers tried to break the shackles of the US propaganda and the ‘constructed
social common sense’ that ‘All Terrorists are Muslims’. This film takes this
formulation as the basic dictum adds to that the imagery that the terrorists
keep carrying Koran, keep offering Namaz, and keep shouting Allah Ho Akbar while
indulging in the acts of brutality.
How come such a serious film
maker like Kamal Haasan falls in to the trap of the US inspired thesis which
links terrorism with the teaching of Islam? Haasan claims to have 300 evidences
for his script. Going by the story line of the film it seems that his sources
seem to be lacking deeper scholarship. One guesses that what is paraded as
evidence is mostly the propaganda of dominant global power, America . Look
at the statement made in all seriousness that Americans don’t kill women and
children! Will the script writer be able to defend it after going through the
list of victims of US
aggression in Afghanistan
and Iraq
to give the recent examples?
The film while caricaturing
Mullah Umar, as Omar in the film, or the nature of whole Taliban gang, gives
the impression that all this is due to what Koran teaches. Here the film gives
the impression, the script goes out to elaborate that the hero stands as an
exception to all the bad Muslims out to destroy the World. One can say the
story line of the film is the passive acceptance of the dominant World view.
Karl Marx remarked that the dominant ideas are the ideas of the ruling classes.
One can modify it to state that the dominant groups-powers can and do
manipulate the social thinking and hide the truth. They project the falsehoods,
which the large sections of society go on to accept. Same thing was articulated
by Noam Chomsky, the US
human rights activists, in his classical formulation of ‘manufacturing
consent’. The extensive study undertaken by Chomsky into the policies of US
Empire showed its machinations to create the opinion in its favor while
attacking other countries for its narrow political goals.
It’s not that there are no
dissenting scholars and serious researched material on the subject. There is
enough in the arena of serious scholarship and some dedicated websites, which
show the deeper truth. One can very well mention the two profound works of
scholarship on the subject, Mahmud Mamdani’s ‘Good Muslim Bad Muslim’ and Tariq
Ali’s ‘Clash of Fundamentalisms’, which show the deeper connection of the
current terror groups, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda outfits themselves being the
product of the US attempt to dominate West Asia for controlling oil wealth. The
US
imperialists worked with the thesis that oil is too important a commodity to be
left to Arabs for control. The deeper peep into the current history of West Asia will clearly show the role of CIA in promoting
the Madrassas, which picked up Salafi version of Islam to indoctrinate the
generation of Muslim youth to undertake acts of terror. The whole sequence of
Mujahideen, Taliban and Al Qaeda had been the outcome of that. All this, was
richly funded by the United States
to fight against the Russians; occupying Afghanistan . Apparently later Al
Qaeda turned its guns against Western powers and today is playing the
Frankenstein’s monster. The whole formulation of ‘Islamic-terrorism’ was the
creation of US
media post 9/11 2001, linking Islam-Muslims with terrorism. Here one is not
referring to the conspiracy theories, which are doing rounds through various
films and social media.
It’s a tragedy of times that
despite the large presence of social media and serious scholarship on
contemporary history of West Asia, the popular conceptions are those dictated
by the US media, and Kamal Haasan’s script neatly falls into the superficial
trap laid by the global ‘social common sense’. How come the film mentions the
involvement of Al Qaeda type groups into the acts of terror in Malegaon
and other cities in India ,
while totally forgetting Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Assemanand and their
ilk who are currently in jails accused of being involved in the series of
blasts in different places in India !
Why film makers and others remain confined to the superficial level of
analysis, which in turn worsens the popular perceptions? Surely, deepening of
these perceptions does suit the interests of the Imperialist powers and also
the communal forces. This pattern of projection of terrorism leads one to
conclude that the power of ideas propagated by America , the other dominant social
groups with their prowess to influence and shape the opinions emerging from
mainstream media and films like Vishwaroopam, is immense. Films like
Vishwaroopam have their own right to be screened without any cuts but are
disgusting for the poverty of their research and regressive values, which in
turn strengthens the Islamophobia, being perpetuated all round, and is serving
the Western powers to dominate the oil zone primarily and also other areas. It
strongly helps the communal thinking also.
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