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By Muhammad Ayub Ali Khan
The Bollywood movie industry, despite claiming to be religiously integrated
and secular, is full of bigots who routinely try to hurt the sensibilities
of India’s largest minority, the Muslims. Muslims beliefs, customs,
habits
and values are laughed at, frowned upon and presented in a distorted
manner
without any regard whatsoever for historical facts in the name of artistic
license. It is even more disturbing to see so-called "Muslim" actors
actively aiding such projects.
The latest such project came in the form of the movie 'Hey Ram'. Directed
and Produced by actor Kamal Hasan (a Hindu who is named after the town
where
he comes from) who plays the lead role in the movie.
The title of the movie is taken from the last words of Gandhi when he
was
assassinated, Hey Ram (Oh God). The story begins at the bedside of
89 year
old Saket Ram who is trying to die as gracefully as possible. Then
the movie
goes back to the pre-independent 1940's when Saket Ram (Kamal Hasan)
and his
wine drinking Muslim friend Amjad Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) are working
as
archeologists on the prehistoric excavation site of Mohenjodaro. The
movie’s
website commits blasphemy by calling Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) God.
Describing Mohenjodaro, the site states that "Mohenjodaro the Indus
Valley
Civilization, was born much before Ram, Christ, Prophet Muhammad and
other
favorite modern gods".
Then Saket Ram goes to meet his wife in Calcutta where communal tensions
are
high due to Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s demand for a separate Muslim state.
Saket
Ram, despite his wife's protestations goes out to get some food and
is
confronted by a Muslim mob who are chasing after a Sikh girl. He saves
the
Sikh girl from the angry mob. He returns home to find out his wife’s
tailor
Altaf is trying to rape her. The mob ties him and also abuse him as
they
rape and kill his wife. Saket Ram somehow escapes and vows revenge.
He kills
every Muslim whenever he gets a chance. The movie tries to show how
a
peaceful, non-violent Hindu is turned into a fanatic due to the behavior
of
the Muslims.
At this time Saket Ram meets a Hindu militant by the name of Abhyankar;
they
believe that it is their duty to save their Hindu brethren from the
Muslim
intruders. They both decide that the current fate of the Hindus is
due to
Gandhi's non-violent principles and that he should be eliminated in
order to
bring back the old glory of the Hindus. Saket Ram is entrusted with
the task
of killing Gandhi after Abhyankar gets injured in an accident. He however
has a change of heart when he is suddenly caught in a crossfire between
Hindu and Muslim mobs. At this moment his old friend Amjad Khan appears
and
gets killed as he tries to save Saket. Another Hindu fanatic meanwhile
carries out Gandhi’s assassination.
In the movie the rioting and killing Muslim mobs are shown wearing islamic
dress, trying to imply that every religious Muslim is a fanatic.
These kinds of scenes are repeated again and again throughout the movie
thereby conditioning the viewers mind against the Muslims. The movie
also
contains gross inaccuracies regarding historical facts. For example
the
movie portrays that there were large scale massacres of Hindus in Calcutta
during the Muslim League's Direct Action Day. The truth is that there
was no
riot in that city on that day. The glorification of Hindu militancy
in the
movie is bound to affect the millions of movie going Hindus especially
the
youth, thus making them prone to violence, bigotry and intolerance.
The
movie also contains x-rated scenes.
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