Recently, I had an interaction with a friend of mine who is from the movie industry. His views came from a content creation and creative freedom point of view and mine, out of personal interest in the production process of audio-visual content.
Bharat, Hindus, are the oldest cultural civilisation that has stood proud over thousands of years despite the repeated onslaught of invaders and colonisers. A civilisation that our forefathers fought and laid their lives down for. We owe it to our ancestors to conserve the glory of our civilisational ethos and uphold its pride and sanctity.
Cinema is a great medium to break down our complex culture and carry out a message to the world. Hindus hoped Adipurush would do just that. I have not seen the movie but I see that we as Hindus face a double-edged sword.
Should we appreciate the effort and output while evaluating it on the basis of global standards so much that the criticism-based factual inaccuracies take a back seat? Should we recognise the efforts of hundreds of people and thousands of man-hours of work? Or, express our dismay when our expectations as consumers and as culturally rooted Hindus were not treated adequately with respect to the sensitivity, respect and accuracy that one should approach Hindu epics with.
I have met daily wagers who cut corners out of their minuscule earnings so that they could watch their favourite stars and be in awe of the story he tells. Use cinematic grandeur to escape the mundane and insurmountable odds of his life. In the recent past, some movies and celebrities were criticised for their work. Some of them were questioned on social media too. Boycott calls were made. However, instead of carefully understanding the moot point, these drunk-on-money-power celebrities mocked the public sentiment. It was appalling that some of them even challenged the very audience that they hope to serve and tell them not to watch their movies as they only want their movies to be consumed by people who can appreciate their ‘creativity’. From star kids like Kareena Kapoor asking people to not watch them if they don’t like them, to Arjun Kapoor threatening viewers and Alia Bhatt mocking people for calling out rampant nepotism in the industry with bereft of talent star kids getting a free run.
Commercial “masala movies” which are purely aimed at entertainment can be taken with a pinch of salt but even they have caused considerable damage towards subverting our general view towards our history, culture and social outlook in a self derogating direction. Loose cultural references and foul depictions of our rituals have already been normalised. We as Hindus have let it pass as an artistic representation or creative freedom and made our peace with it. We don’t see the same level of tolerance reciprocated by the so-called minorities. In fact, even their inhuman actions are glorified and presented as some kind of a struggle for survival and acts of revolution. Amidst all of this the only hope that we as Hindus have is that when movies which are attempted with elements of our history, culture, dharma and civilisational pride should be treated with utmost respect and attention to detail to ensure that the sanctity of the messaging is preserved.
Movies have a considerable contribution to shaping our society. They influence the evolution of our society at both, the individual level as well at the regional or global level. The success of movies at the regional level indirectly becomes a testimony of cultural and civilisational acceptance. Therefore, it’s essential that the movie industry recognises its responsibility. The industry cannot afford to turn a blind eye or have its way in the name of creative freedom without considering the demographic fabric of our civilisation.
Our epics are not just mythical stories or fairytales which should be appropriated at the whims and fancies of anyone. They must be respected and they must be approached sensitively in the creative processes.
One example of such a movie is “Jai Santoshi Maa” – 1975. It changed the public discourse like few movies in the cultural space. It mainstreamed Santoshi Maa in every household. There was nothing dramatic about the movie even for its time. A movie like Mughal-E-Azam (1960) had more production richness and aesthetic appeal than Jai Santoshi Maa which was released a whole 15 years later. Yet checked all the boxes. The visuals had the audience teary and in awe of Santoshi Maa. The background score invoked a sense of Bhakti in the audience. The music of this movie is considered one of the most popular spiritual hymns and most people today do not even consider it as a mere original soundtrack. It is now played as devotional music at Jagran and religious festivities. In fact, the entire concept of ‘Maata ki Chowki’ and ‘Jagraataa’ became part of mainstream culture. It made such an impact that no one needs to make a Santoshi Maa movie with the same depiction again. That’s the power of cinema and that’s called making the most of the opportunity.
It clearly shows that one doesn’t need a fat budget, popular star cast, or social media noise (paid or otherwise) if the subject is approached ethically and mindfully. The audience would reward a sincere effort at the box office and be happy about their culture and reverence being showcased with due respect.
Defending the plethora of criticism, which ranged from trashy dialogues being attributed to Hanuman and Bhagwan Ram, to the misrepresentation of Ramayan itself, Manoj Muntashir only yesterday essentially said that anyone criticising the plebeian dialogues attributed to our Gods was those who had a problem with the chants of Jai Shree Ram.
He very ‘eloquently’ narrated some other dialogues he had written for the character of Prabhu Shri Ram. Then quickly cried a victim of being targeted by some people on social media for specific dialogues he had written for Hanuman’s character.
He went on to admit that it was a creative decision that came out of careful deliberation. The reason cited was – children of today do not know anything about Maryaada Purushottam Prabhu Shri Ram beyond him supposedly being a God whose picture is hung on the wall in their homes. The crux of Muntashir’s argument was that for our children to understand the glory of Maryada Purushottam Ram, all Maryana has to be broken.
Today, he took to Twitter and yet again, said he was being victimised. However, to his credit, he did say that the team of Adipurush had decided to change the offending dialogues with immediate effect.
रामकथा से पहला पाठ जो कोई सीख सकता है, वो है हर भावना का सम्मान करना.
— Manoj Muntashir Shukla (@manojmuntashir) June 18, 2023
सही या ग़लत, समय के अनुसार बदल जाता है, भावना रह जाती है.
आदिपुरुष में 4000 से भी ज़्यादा पंक्तियों के संवाद मैंने लिखे, 5 पंक्तियों पर कुछ भावनाएँ आहत हुईं.
उन सैकड़ों पंक्तियों में जहाँ श्री राम का यशगान…
While the audience backlash resulted in the team of Adipurush retracting the dialogues, it is important this notion that those offending dialogues somehow taught Ramayan to our kids has to be addressed.
As a father, he should speak for himself. And I, as a father, refuse to submit to his justification for using crass, pedestrian language which was then delivered by the actor who characterised Hanuman.
I refuse to let my children get the impression that Bhagwan Hanuman was a cocky strong-man who lit Ravan’s gothic charcoal black kingdom on fire at the wag of his tail.
Our kids know the kind of language they can use when they are amongst their peers and at the same time maintain dignity, love and respect in their behaviour. And so, I refuse to accept using pedestrian language to depict the messaging of our Gods for the sake of mass appeal and providing a ‘simpler’ understanding to our kids.
The unintended (or perhaps intended, we would never know) consequence of this debauchery would be a mainstreaming of a mauled version of Ramayan and a deracinated version of our Gods. This results in a great disservice to us as Hindus who wish to take pride in our history, culture and civilizational richness.
We missed the bus this time because the makers of Adipurush have managed to destroy the content streams by misrepresenting the relevant elements of our Gods. They now hide under the garb of creative freedom after turning our revered Gods into shallow, ranting war creatures. What kind of creativity are we talking about here?
When movie makers approach messaging and fail to create an impact for such a significant and prime subject like Ramayan, it closes the door for all cultural movies for a long time. Every cultural subject will now be analysed for things which may or may not be relevant. All upcoming movies will lose the opportunity to be evaluated in the fair spirit. It doesn’t seem that our so-called stars realise the disservice they do not only to society but to their own industry.
In the meantime, we as the audience are left with some questions, to which, given Muntashir and Om Raut’s arrogance, I do not expect answers.
What do we settle for? What do we do?
Yes, a cultural movie was attempted and its commercial success should be celebrated along with appreciation that it has brought a fraction of the youth to recognize at least some part of our roots. But, are we supposed to accept the inaccuracies and push them under the carpet in the name of artistic freedom? Is our cultural pride so cheap and can be taken for granted or loosely handled?
Should we call out this misadventure and recognise all the inaccuracies?
Should we hold the movie makers responsible for the compounding impact on our future generations because of their little creative debacle?
Should we allow this disinformation to be mainstreamed over a period of time and find its place in being recognised as another credible version of our history? This will not only impact our social discourse but will be seen as an element of our identity globally.
And given that this debacle, over a period of time, might become acceptable as another version of our history, just like the Jodha-Akbar debauchery was, should we be far more infuriated at the sleight of hand by the makers of Adipurush.
Should literature be created to document the inaccuracies so that it stays on record that the movie had these deficiencies and they should be treated as such, thus, not allowing it to have any association with our history at all?
I would want my teenage children to think of Lord Ram as the ideal King and ideal leader. I would want them to learn that Dharma must be fulfilled no matter what the cost is. I would want my children to learn unbridled bhakti from Hanuman – that even Arjun won because he decided to mount his rath. I would want my daughter to learn pride, dignity and duty from Maa Sita. I would want my children to grow up with gratitude for the Dharma they were fortunate enough to be born in. Turning our Gods into cheap rip-offs of some lifeless Marvel characters is not what my children need to learn about their roots. Adipurush is not for my children and will never be.
