Putting Jodha Akbar on trial

There might be many issues in the coming months, for which Ashutosh Gowarikar, Hrithik Roshan and crew will be taken to task for in making their Jodha Akbar. Let's get right down to it and address some of them here.

Akbar's cinema crew are going around passing around posters and CDs of Jodha Akbar to viewers showing just two people, ie a 'king and the queen' of hindustan pedigree. All we see are Hrithik Roshan and a mustache and a head queen, played by one Aishwarya Rai. On top there's Amitabh Bachchan reciting this as if it's Hindustan's freedom movement. How wonderful and generous of them...and weird.

Because ladies and gentlemen, there is a central question of whether there even was any real Jodhabai truly, who was considered head queen of Akbar that Aishwarya Rai is fantacizing herself to be in this movie (as compared to being another harem queen) in 16th century Muslim ruled India.

And regardless of any Jodha Bai and her real stature, is the basic premise of what an 'epic romance' is and should be.

For much of the people, an 'epic romance' is a relationship implied between two people committed to each other and each other only. Made for each other, till death do them part...so go all the epic tales. Look it up. Laila-Majnu, Heer-Ranjha, Romeo-Juliet, or if you want an intercommunal equivalent cinematic reference even: Tara Singh-Sakina from Gadar. Imagine if in Gadar, Tara had 50 other Sakinas on the side, alongside the one main one he really claimed to love. What would the reaction have been?

A big question and problem Gowarikar and his people are going to have then is that Akbar did not have just one Jodha Bai in his chamber. He had a number of 'Jodha Bais' by the hundreds. In fact according to the biography by Vincent Smith, Akbar enjoyed 'a harem consisting of 5000 women, mostly Hindus'. Given this many concubines and 'Bais' in his harem; countless 'harem-zades' must have been born out of his 'love stories' and 'romances' with those all females on various occasions. In fact there were. Did that not seem like a point worth considering in trying to sell this off as some noble love story? What's coming next, the epic romance of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinksy?

How exactly does Gowarikar plan to get around this fundamental polygamist reality in his so called 'epic romance' which he's implying to the public was a primarily bigamous affair? Is he going to advocate polygamy, or deny basic reality?

Gowarikar's premise, a muslim prince and a hindu princess in this fictional 1 to 1 romance of Jodha-Akbar therefore, is fundamentally misleading.

More importantly, so is the general implication of Akbar's secularism. It is easy to get worked over a Narendra Modi in today's times at the same while hailing dead men like Akbar as Akbar the Great. But history is proof that on February 24, 1568, Akbar (the great) called for a pogrom and brutal massacre of 30,000 defenseless Hindus of Chittorgarh, Rajasthan who had refused to convert to Islam. Unlike what Jodha-Akbar would be implying, in reality countless Rajput women committed 'Jauhar' instead of being taken by muslim kings. Some Hindus gave in to the Mughals and they are in the midst as muslims in the country today, but most Hindus didn't. Despite the difficulties, they considered any idea of Man Singhs and Jodha Bais as treason and kept resisting and defying the muslim onslaughts. And it is because of that defiance and determination that Hindu culture and civilization has outlasted the mughal rule and is able to mount back with a massive army and nuclear arsenal capable of obliterating the entire Middle-east today. Fact of the matter is if Akbar and Mughals had their way, Hrithik Roshan would be named Hakim in real life, Aishwarya Rai would be Hamida in a veil somewhere, and this article be asked to be written in some Urdu-Turko script.

So what will not be missed is that this film's maker is not just playing with his own personal hallucinations. He is seeking universal approval for a questionable historical and political agenda using the cover of Hindu voices and faces on the Indian screen.

Bollywood has long been doing this unquestioned of course. The implication that Salim aka Jahangir (Mughals' selected heir to Akbar) was born out of this romance is another myth or unverifiable allegation propogated in modern fantasy primarily, such as the earlier costume drama Mughaleazam. Real Akbar loved this 'Jodha Bai' so much that far from building any Taj Mahal, any school, any building whatsoever for her, he did not even so much as mention the woman any where. Nor does Mr. Salim in his autobiography hint anywhere that his female parentage was not Muslim. Because most likely that was not the case. Most likely, Jodha Bai's offsprings were just wandering around the harems also like her. In any case, given that a number of Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs (Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was slaughtered by him for not accepting Islam) were murdered by Mr. Salim during his stay in power also, it is hard to imagine what good it did anyway for greater benefit of humanity as a whole. What lasting positive influence this supposed Akbar-Jodha cross-religion drama had on India, except for strengthening Akbar and Muslim hold over India till they were themselves overrun by the British. So far as secularism in contemporary India is concerned, regardless of its merits, it is largely a creation of the Hindu (and sustained *by* the Hindu, due to multiple pathway principle intrinsic in Hindu polytheist culture it should be added), not driven by anything to do with Akbar or Baabur or that Nehruvian visionary Aurangzeb. There is a reason why Pakistan which flies the Mughal flag and sees itself as the modern state of the Mughal empire, has pretty much eliminated its Hindu population, and is the kind of society it is compared to India's.

Given the extremely leftist tilt of Bollywood and much of media today, it is not surprising to see the advocacy around Jodha Akbar. They trump it as the ultimate film for all times as hope for peace and harmony and this and that. What they don't realize is that it's a dangerous mirage. The way to advance real peace in the subcontinent is by having a strong Hindustan, capable of avenging and defending its people and its borders, whereby the consequences of trying to destabalize the Hindus (and perhaps those muslims who have chosen to bear allegiance to Hindustan's ancient history) are not worth the incentives that may come with it. That will not however happen by Bollywood imagining up false realities to dupe themselves and the public into 'feeling better' about this era of the history, and by trying to bury significant events, differences and issues under the surface using the rose colored glasses and safety net of Indian cinema.

It is conceivable that the filmmaker and crew have tapdanced their way around some of these hard issues cleverly and if they haven't, they will be in trouble. The underlying themes behind Jodha Akbar in the end are far bigger than a 3 hour movie in some theater. And they're going to have to deal with the various aspects and consequences that are bound to be held against Ronnie Screwvala and the Jodha Akbar promoters, regardless of how big a hit or flop this film on celluloid turns to be.

I too want a Padma

I am not speaking about my good looking neighbour but the Padma awards which are here to grab for all and sundry. The UPA govt has done it once again, in 2005 Graham Satines' widow recieved the padma shri award for no good reason(well you may argue that sonia gandhi is the head of UPA, and that is enough to justify it) and now it is Sant Chatwal. Its an open secret that he is not a sant(saint) and dont need to be one to get national awards in India. Thanks to the media campaign the government has decided to rethink on its decision

On a lighter note I have few suggestions on who should get these awards

1.First and foremost my friend named Padmakar, just because it sounds good to hear "padmashree sri padmakar" :-)

2.Rakhi Sawant for her innovative ideas to get publicity from Swayamvar by getting married on screen.

3.Our honarable president pratibha patil, who was first the honarable president of a co-operative bank which duped poor people of their hard earned money

4.Shivraj Patil for sucessfully uniting the opinion of all the people in country against Pakistan by failing to prevent 26/11(unfortunately it did not last long, for example people like shah rukh khan have already started saying that we should treat people from pakistan fairly)

5.Madhu Koda for strengthening India's influence far in africa by buying coal mines in Liberia also in south east asia by owning a hotel in Thailand

6.Ramalinga Raju, how can this genuis be missed he is the maker of Indian Enron.

Please send in your suggestion, I am planning to send the list to PMO :-)

P.S: Most of the people who are receiving these awards well deserve them and I have utmost respect for them. People like Chatwal bring disgrace to Padma awards and also to the people who truly deserve them.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

When I woke up on the afternoon of 15th august the flag was already hoisted at red fort, the national anthem already sung and host of patriotic movies were being screened on different channels. When I saw the video on a news channel I saw a smile on our prime minister's face when he was hoisting the flag, I'm not sure if he is happy because "HE" is hoisting the flag or because Indian flag is flying high, I am not questioning his patriotism but I am just thinking how many of us think in the second way. When Nehru hoisted the tricolour on 15th of august 1947 he was happy because the tricolour is being hoisted, but not because he was doing it. Our ancestors have given life and blood to see this day, few were unlucky and a few remained to see this day, the start point of we becoming our own masters. Its hard to imagine of those people who refused to hurt anyone to achieve their goal but in turn lost their life, its hard to imagine about a man who led these people, the man who started an experiment of non violence and was successful in it , a man whose words made millions to stand against a mighty empire. They all had had to pay a big prize, they did it only because they wanted us to breathe freely .

Today we are free to vote for any one and ironically our freedom is far stretched so the person who is voted to power is also free to work or abstain from working. We are free to defecate anywhere so millions of them use rail tracks as their toilets, we are free to sleep anywhere so millions of them sleep on footpath and authorities are free to rehabilitate them or to let them rot on footpath. The western world which once looked down upon India has become role model for many of us, I do believe that we need to learn a lot from the western world in terms of development but many of us blindly believe that westernization is modernization. We are blindly obsessed with western culture, a man in jeans is more respected than a man wearing dhoti, we have forgotten that mahatma used to wear just a dhoti, a journalist like Barkha Dutt is more interested in Obama's beer party than iftar party hosted by Vajpayee. People are coming in support of the gay rights just because western world has adopted it, people who are supporting gay rights say "look at canada, gay marriages are legal over there", I say look at Canada they have such a good economy and health care facilities why don't we debate on such a matter rather than debating on gay rights which is not natural and utter waste of time.More and more parents are speaking in English with their sons and daughters, a day might come when there will be no one left to speak Indian languages. The culture and tradition which was once our country's pride is vanishing just like the ice in Antartica,We are misusing the hard earned freedom, the freedom for which hundred's of Indian's have lost their lives, if we don't correct ourselves we will have to pay a bigger prize this time cause FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

Naxals, Maoist and Menace

It all started with a bizarre incident of attacking the land lords at a small village in west benagl called naxalbari, a moment was born and the people associated with it were called naxals. It was a moment for poor against the atrocities of the "Government", a government supposed to be a collective efforts of rich and poor but unfortunately did not involve poor and tribals. Although the cause of naxals was angelic but the way employed by them was undemocratic and barbaric. Justifying naxals is like justifying phoolan devi for killing the thakurs.

The Maoist/naxal menace is increasingly becoming a big headache for the Indian government.Sometimes I feel that my country is envied by the gods, on one side we have Pakistan and on other side we have china, as if this was not enough the internal naxal problem which tantamount to terrorism is growing. The naxals are becoming bolder and determined every day.

The society usually looks up to its intellectuals for guidance, but in India the Intellectuals are always caught on a wrong foot, either it is the matter of hanging a terrorist, constructing a dam, testing nuclear weapons or the naxal violence. They always seems to be supporting the wrong side to be more precise always anti-government. I agree that the government has failed on many fronts and there are flaws in the system of democracy but it’s not beyond repair. The growing violence of naxals is a direct message to the government to start thinking about the tribals and poor people, building roads in Gadchiroli is as important as building a sea link in mumbai. Why is that the government always requires naxal attack to realize that the region lacks development, the government has become like a police force of hindi films, reaching the place after the actual action has taken place.

Naxals call themselves people's representatives but never hesitate to kill their own people if they violate their commands, they claim to struggle for the common man but take pride in beheading a cop who is also an another common man doing his duty and following the orders given to him. Naxals, Moists and Menace have become the synonyms of present times. Naxals should never forget that unlike Mao the greatest revolutionary Gandhi never used GUN to WIN.

The reasons why I will not vote for UPA

1.A Pope dies and none of the christian countries in Europe declared a national mourning except Italy, but our country, a secular country observs national mourning. Why should my country's national flag fly at half mast when some religious leader is dead?.Will the UPA govt lead by Sonia Gandhi declare national mourning when any shankaracharya dies

2.Its obviously a shame on the NDA government failing to prevent an attack on the Indian Parliament. But not punishing the culprits is equally shameful. The government failed to set an example by not sending Afzal Guru to gallows. My heart cries in pain when I think about the soldiers who lost their lives protecting these Parliamentarians.

3.One fine day in 2006 the UPA govt decides to de freeze the London bank accounts of Mr.Quattrocchi the main accused in the Bofors scandal. When the matter goes to the supreme court, orders are given to the central government to freeze those bank accounts again, but it was too late as the had to freeze empty accounts

4.The loyalty of the UPA government towards Mr Q was immense. They proved it when the news of Mr.q's arrest in Argentina was not disclosed to the public for more than 15 days. However the govt did not had any intention to reveal it if it was not for an obedient man in MEA.

5.Mr Manmohan Singh who is claimed to be a descent man has time and again said that minorities have the first priority over the national resources, well what does he mean by that, does that mean that people from majority community are second class citizens and his party is said to be a secular party, is that what secularism means supporting minority and opposing majority?

6.Yet once again the UPA government under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi show there true colors, the CBI withdraws the 2-year-long Interpol red corner notice against Quattrocchi. Either Mr.Q is really honest or the Congress party has something to hide.

7.While the congress ruled state Maharashtra has anti terror law like MCOCA,the government sends recommendation to president not to pass GUJCOCA, a carbon copy of MACOCA. The government feels that some sections in the law are not in public interest and can be misused, but how can that be possible when there is a similar law in maharashtra? The law might be in public interest but definitely not in UPA's interest

Nepotism is in our blood

Nepotism was originally used for the practice appointing or elevating cardinals by pope, and those people who were being elevated are either pope's nephew or realtives. In mordern times nepotism can be seen majorly in Indian politics.
From times since independence the centre stage of congress party is always occupied by people from Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.However we cannot ignore their sacrifices but we also cannot ignore their blunders.
our rule our blunders:
It all started with jawaharlal Nehru, because of his mistake we lost 1/3rd of kashmir to pakistan and it is now called as pok, another 1/3rd was lost to china during his reign.The so called last english man to rule India, he was very much intersted in converting India into a socialist state like stalin's russia.
Then came Nehru's daughter Indira. She is best known for two things, one is liberation of bangladesh and another emergency. However 1971 war was really a great one but attrocities during emergency were no less.She was preparing her son sanjay to be the next PM so that her family tradition of being in power continues, but unfortunately he died in a misadventures plane crash. Now her last hope was rajiv, who eventually became PM after her death.
Rajiv started reforms in his own way, people thought that if he can fly a plane then he can also run a governement, he was elected to power with an unprecedented majority, he sent India's peace keeping force to sri lanka only to increase the voilence, he struck a deal with bofors with a middle man as his italian born wife's best friend, it was revealed that Indian people were defrauded and the ghost of bofors still haunts congress.
India had to wait till 1991 to see a person outside nehru gandhi family to complete a five year term.
The legacy returned with sonia gandhi who banked on the blunders made by the NDA government to reach the power corridors, she refused the chair of prime minister amidst high drama but still possesing the governments remote control with her. The UPA government whose chairperson is soina defreesed the bank accounts of Quattrocchi(her best friend), by the time it was brought to the notice of the people, it was too late as all the money was taken by Mr.Q, even when Mr.Q was detained by argentinean police, the whole of the country was kept in dark before some unfortunate person leaked it to media, god knows what is going to happen to him.
Recently during the uttar pradesh assembly elections rahul gandhi was one of the frontrunner in congress's campaign, if he was able to turn the fortunes of congress then their would have been no one who could have stoped him from becoming a prominent leader, but his charisma did not work and congress faired badly getting only 8% of the total votes but still he was appointed as congress general secretary even after this debacle, he is also included in the party's 22 member UP Panel, is he that able? may be my question is wrong,does he belong to the gandhi family or not? the answer is clearly yes "bobs your uncle",thus he has enough qualifications of being a party gs, infact he is being projected as the future prime ministerial candidate, Why not they will even project him as the future Messiah just like other congress leaders were projected once, it seems that Nepotism flows in the blood of members of nehru-gandhi dynasty, and the rest of the congress is proud about it.

Vinasha Kale Viparitha Buddhi

when ravan abuducted sita mata he did not know that his end was nearing, similarly the present congress government at the center and few dmk ministers are destined to doom, however in this kali yuga we will not be having any opportunity to see lord rama destroying these demons but surely common man who adores lord rama as maryada purushottam will teach these demons a good lesson in the elections.
In 2003 when the ASI surveyed the disputed area in Ayodya and concluded that a 10th century temple existed under the mosque we did not hear anything from the so called secular parties, but when they want to destroy rama setu they say it loud and clear that rama setu is not a man made structure, without any proper survey being conducted by ASI.Hindu bashing accompanied with minority appeasement has become a fashion, it would have been more fashionable if there was no rath yatra by advani which proved that even hindus can be a vote bank, till then every one took hindus for granted.
By and large the situation has not changed much, its only during elections that political parties care for Hindu sentiments, rest of the time our prime ministers' take pride in saying that minorities should have the highest priority over national resources. Although our country is secular we find crusaders cross on our 2 and 1 rupee coins, national mourning is announced when pope dies, some class of people get money from the government for there pilgrimage to middle east while Hindus have to pay thousands of rupees to chinese government for visiting manasa sarovara.
When mahatma gandhi spoke about rama rajya nobody questioned the existence of rama, even when the rama janma bhoomi movement was at its peak and even till this date nobody questioned the existence of rama, the only controversy was whether we need a temple at that place or not. Now we have a government which questions the very existence of rama, and thus rama setu is mythological and therefore it should not be given much importance.
The government wants to build a canal which will reduce the cost and time of travel between west and east coast of bharat, the present plan is to destroy the rama setu and construct a canal.By destroying rama setu they are not just hurting Hindu sentiments but they are creating a lot of ecological problems, lakhs of fishermen will be effected by the project and moreover according to few experts the project is not feasible economically. Let us for a moment consider that rama setu is mythical, what if it is mythical people believe that it was constructed by vanaras and government should not hurt the the religious beliefs of its people, what kind of government it is which is not ready to spend time and money for its people. Any government should not think of loss and profit, it should only think about its people but the UPA government is more interested in making profit that too by hurting our sentiments.