I did not cry but nor can I say that tears did not come to my eyes. Call me a loser, call me a sissy. Call me whatever you like but for a fact I know what I actually am. A pure hypocrite. This blog is not a review of the movie at which my first sentence holds good : “My Name is Khan”(from the epiglotis). This is about something I realized while I was watching it. The tears or the feeling of sadness(to put it a bit manly) were NOT for Kajol or the suffering Khan(who, I have to admit, pulled off the role pretty well but at the same time gave me the image of not having to work too much to “act” new). It was not about the loss of a son or the life of a mentally challenged character. It was about the plight of the world. The acts of cruelty, the misunderstandings and also a feeling of detached pride in random acts of unity. Scenes portraying the patriotic, nationalistic and stray incidents of unity and courage always gave me goosebumps and what can be termed as “welling of the eyes”. For those of you who did watch the Khan as Khan flick, some scenes I can quote as examples are 1) the search at the airport, 2) Sam’s incident 3) the Georgia incident : not Shahrukh going over but when his relatives, and friends come to help. At the same time the scenes which irked me included the US teacher talking about “Islam” and the talk by the “doctor” to inspire Jihadism but there again the correct interpretation provided by Khan gave a sense of righteousness to the set. It is not religion, it is not nationality, nor race, colour, language that diversifies man. It is the good and the bad. Quoting another famous flick “You either die a hero or live long enough to be a villain”. The same way as absence of light is darkness, inaction or the absence of good is bad/evil. But I shall not stray into my “philosophies” on religion or “humanity” in this blog. Throughout the movie I felt that sadness due to the stereotyped portrayal of a specific set of people; be it religion or color.
That’s where I come in. On reading an article related to the Indo-Pak venture “Aman ki aasha”, I realized more than half of what they wrote was true. I would recommend the article for those who are interested. Our image of a topi(Taqiyah in Arabic) wearing man with long beard and robe has been combined with the same images of that person sitting around tables hatching plans to blow up a landmark. The media, movies and every single form of communication have shown remade “adaptations” of these images. Regardless of the number of disclaimers on being shown these two images side by side any person would just “logically” reason out a bunch of crap. Why not a man with a tshirt and jeans? Why not a guy in a coat?? It’s an image that generates a thought; an idea. I am not going to use any general terms here. Coz on contemplating at the end of the movie, I realized one thing I am just a HYPOCRITE. Just a day before I had these “fake emotions” flowing in, I was roaming around Hyderabad . As usual, lost and far from home!(I seriously should get a GPS and map while driving). At a point where I was definite I was going the wrong way, I stopped to ask directions. The person I happened to stop near was the typical stereotyped “long beard, topiwala” and my first response was “Would he really give me the right direction”. Disgusting. For the record, the way I asked him or talked to him did not get affected by this and he was a very pleasant man. Then WHY this stupid misconception. Why that thought!! Even after the movie and on hearing about the Pune blast my mind rushed to that spot. He was getting off a scooter. Boom!! This is me. I give a load of crap about being righteous, about being against religious fanaticism(which I strongly AM against) but at the same time I think like this. I fear/doubt an image. Why is it that we are made to believe that he or any man who looks like that can’t be our neighbor, manager or friend! It is not just the world that bothers me, nor the media. Right now it is me. And how much of a hypocrite I am. To all those people out there to whose images I have attached incidents : I can’t stop thinking or imagining but please accept my apologies.
P.S : I know for a fact, i do not speak about just myself here.
Later,
Shanker
