Qayamat’s day of judgement

One would have dismissed it as yet another C-grade, kitschy flick from the chronically idea-starved Hindi film factory. But the unabashed, uncensored jingoism the film repeatedly resorts to is sickening. What is more dangerous is that it reiterates Hindutva’s dangerous anti-Muslim campaign: Muslims no longer love India. I deliberately chose to sit among the front-benchers at a suburban Mumbai theatre to watch the film. Surrounded by rambunctious, rowdy youngsters, I could see first-hand how a big chunk of young India reacts to this outrageous minority-basher. Every gaali, every communal remark, evoked a thunderous applause from the crowd.”Kafir mulk se aaya hua har musalman hamare yahan mehmaan hai (every Muslim from an infidel country is a guest for us,” declares a beared Pakistani, plotting a biological attack on Mumbai. The film is replete with such fiery fulminations.

What does the filmmaker want to achieve? He tries to balance his story by pitting a patriotic Muslim police officer — Akram (Suniel Shetty) — against Muslim saboteurs. But he fails miserably. For it’s not the image of Honest Akram, but that of the venal, vengeful brothers—Ali and Abbas—that audiences carry home with them.

One wonders how such a rabble-rouser of a movie escaped the Censor Board’s scissors. But then, with a known Parivar foot-soldier like Arvind Trivedi as its chief, it should surprise no one. Trivedi has shown his bias more than once. Akrosh, a film based on interviews of the Gujarat riot victims, has been denied a certificate because “it may create a law and order problem”. Anand Patwardhan had to take his War and Peace — a film against India’s nuclear test— to the courts because some woolly-headed members of the Censor Board deemed it anti-national. The same Censor Board allows this crassly communal film to get through. Even the apathy of the civil society is appalling. Self-proclaimed moralists cry hoarse every time someone makes a halfway raunchy video like Kaanta Laga. But they quietly swallow an indignity like Qayamat. “It is bad. But there’s nothing new about it,” observed a liberal Hindu friend.

The silence of the liberals, both Hindus and Muslims, is dangerous. Crackpots spewing venom have already hijacked our religions. Should we allow them to infringe on an essentially secular firmament like the Hindi film industry?