PK-Cover-Poster

PK or Boycott PK – that is the question?

PK or Boycott PK – is that really a question?

written by Souranath Banerjee.

I originally planned to write a review on PK (the latest Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani blockbuster), a light-hearted comedy with an important social message; though i felt the same message was conveyed in a much better way in Umesh Shukla‘s OMG: Oh My God! a couple of years back.

Then again i liked PK and especially Amir Khan’s exceptional performance.

But to my surprise i stumbled upon the fact that some people recently took the social media with the sole intention to convince others to boycott the film!

On Twitter and Facebook, the hashtag, #BoycottPK is used for such propaganda. They are the so called ‘Hindu fundamentalists‘ who are crying foul about the “portrayal of Hindus” in the film; some of them even accused PK of promoting ‘love-jihad’!

According to these religious guardians of our society the film PK insults Hindus and Hinduism. They also claim that just because the other communities – the Muslims and Christians are generally more aggressive in their forms of protest – the Hindus are repeatedly made the soft target of such religious slanders.

It is also blamed that Lord Shiva is specifically being insulted in the film as referring to the comic sequence where a man dressed as Lord Shiva is worshipped and also being chased by the character PK as he mistook this man to be the real God himself.

Then again some others point out that a blooming love story between an Indian girl and a Pakistani boy (as shown in the film) is spreading a wrong message and probably even encouraging Love Jihad!

FIR has been launched against the team of ‘PK’, against the lead actor, director and the producers. A plea to ban PK on the grounds of religious sentiments being hurt and picturing nudity was also being made which was very recently rejected by the Supreme Court.

Wow! Is this really happening?

Though such accusations and allegations are both surprising and irritating but still one should listen to their perspective as well (or else down the line we will be called the next fanatics). After all, in our free, secular, democratic country everyone is entitled to state their own opinion and are allowed to voice their grudges and views no matter how doltish they may sound.

For me a film should firstly be treated only as a form of entertainment. And the huge box office collection (more than 50 crore in the first weekend) simply proves that PK is VERY much entertaining.

Then again as many good films often does, PK highlights some social issues, especially the corrupted ‘business-side’ of all the religions, and attempts to unmask the con God-men or ‘dongibabas’ (unfortunately to be found in every religion) who exploit innocent people both financially and emotionally. PK emphasizes that we should love and protect our one and only creator, our God and not our individual religions.

And the good thing about PK is that it’s not at all preachy, the film offers a comical take on these serious issues of our society and still has a huge impact on the audience.

It is such an irony that a film like PK with a strong message against religious biasses should fall prey to such bigoted religious controversies.

As a sensibly religious guy who also likes to watch films, I humbly request the people (with accusation lists) to please watch the film again but this time with a broader mindset.

I am sure these accusers, at least many of them are not really ‘religious fanatics’ as many newspapers and news articles tag them to be. I think they are simply sensitive people who are soft in their hearts as well as in their heads.

In the style of Rajkumar Hirani‘s earlier films they all need ‘jaddu-ki-jhappis’ and ‘thank you’ cards tagged with colorful flowers.

Let us all remember that God is above all religions and all we can ever do is pray for peace and harmony; and keep watching films of course.

P.S. – Did you guys take into account the free additional publicity PK is getting from these ‘BoycottPK’ groups ?! (just a thought).

 

A few articles which consist of the various tweets that both accuses and supports the film and the supreme court verdict:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/aamir-khan-pk-anti-hindu-rajkumar-hirani-twitter-boycottpk-wesupportpk/1/408199.html

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/supreme-court-rejects-plea-to-ban-aamir-s-pk-says-just-don-t-watch-it-575874

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