There has been a huge hue and cry over the release of Sanjay
Leela Bhansali’s latest magnum opus, starring Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone
and Shahid Kapoor. Those who follow Bollywood news will realise that this is
not the first time we are witnessing a brouhaha over a film and its content.
Let us believe for once, that the fringe groups that are protesting and crying
hoarse over the film’s subject and treatment have a decent idea over the
authenticity of the historical characters that are being essayed in the film.
Now let us suppose that Bhansali has read his history lessons wrong and thus
has taken the liberty to turn the film upside down as per his whims and
fancies. In this case, the rabble rousers would be justified in nursing a
grouse and even taking certain measures to make sure that the wrongdoers are
not allowed to malign a much-venerated historical personality’s name.
There are
several problems with these two premises in themselves. Firstly, nobody knows
what SLB has made. Nobody who is protesting at least, unless they have been
offered a special dekko of the film before its release or were part of the
script reading sessions with the cast or were given a special preview of the
story by the makers of the film. So now that we don’t know what the film is
depicting and how, how do we assume it is distorting content? Now we come to
content itself, how are those claiming to know their history so sure that they
have researched and got to the bottom of what these characters were doing in a
previous century only available to us through documented records? Who is to
claim the authenticity of those writers? How do we know whether Padmavati was
indeed a reigning queen of her time or a
figment of someone’s active imagination? How well have historians been able to
understand the period she was living in, how engaged were they in the daily
events that were unfolding in that era and do we have enough substantial proof
to support different points of views of historians during that time to be able
to distinguish fact from fiction, fable from reality and creative liberty from
a more pragmatic approach?
And yet, there has been a horde of people trolling the
release of the film. I am surprised at how many educated people are part of
this, not driven by any political agenda or personal malice against the makers
of the film. What triggers so many very sensible people otherwise to launch a
tirade against an entity they barely know? How many of us were reading chapters
on Padmavati in school? Whose reality are we basing our viewpoint on? And how practical
is it for us to be raging against a popular piece of art, that is a mere
perspective of its maker, who has amply claimed it to have no foundation on
actual events that might have happened? Unless we can swear that we have read
every piece of material that exists on the saga of Padmavati, we cannot even
start calling someone else’s fraud as what we may be doing is equally heinous-
throwing up our own intentional ire on forces that run parallel to our highly
averse and poorly formed judgement.
I do not wish to defend any filmmaker or film or writer who
wishes to give history its own spin, with a deliberate attempt to damage
someone’s reputation (may it be a living or dead person). I also do not wish to
say we are wrong in questioning the right of such individuals who choose to
challenge socio-cultural beliefs around a certain public figure. However, let’s
also understand that when one tends to eulogise about a real-life person on screen,
lauding his/her work and putting him/her up there on a pedestal, we are still
not mirroring reality but presenting our version of facts, a mere essay that
projects our point-of-view on others. Be it criticism or praise, when we choose
to take a side as a maker potraying a real-life personality, how much
objectivity can we claim to achieve allowing different points of view about the
same person? For example, Mahatma Gandhi
remains a world-renowned freedom fighter with plenty of those who worship him and
those who do not hesitate to be harsh in their review of his political stance,
his decision-making as a statesman and an ambassador of satyagraha. While there
are some who will vouch for Indira Gandhi’s leadership prowess, they are others
who shun her divisive policies and inability to rise above nepotism. There are
other public figures who are clearly contentious in character- Vijay Mallya,
Hugh Hefner, Michael Jackson…all of them inarguably hold powerful positions in
people’s minds: as those who should be looked up to as role models and equally
derided by others as people who misused their power for their own selfish
motives.
It is extremely detrimental to take sides without knowing
the truth. What sets the educated class from the ignorant or the easily
gullible is that we are bestowed the power to be able to acquire knowledge,
analyse, reason out and then make our estimations about the world around us.
Let us not be misled by miscreants to assume a falsified stand. As someone who
loves cinema and has enjoyed watching the SLB brand of filmmaking for its sheer
grandeur and dramatic gratification, I would like to respect the makers’ need
to tell this story. How relevant it may be or how twisted in its tale is best
known only to them and will unravel only after watching it. If after watching
the film, people still surmise that its content is
sullied/malignant/defamatory, they can voice their protest by seeking legal
aid. Until then, let us lift our finger from our keypad and recognise the true
meaning of the words ‘silence is golden’.
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