Aamir Khan proves Marx right !!!!!

How many more maulings?

The people who are protesting ab Aamir Khan's 'Rising' are missing the point altogether.....well they dont really care about the point in any case.....that the film is riddled with inaccuracies and falsification and unneccesary (necessary from the viewpoint of commercialization) glorification of mangal pandey is self evident...i mean the fella is shown to be conferring with tantia tope!!! and capturing delhi (for heaven's sake).....mangal pandey was hanged before the revolt actually begun and it begun in Meerut not in Barrackpore (where Mangal Pandey revolted).....

now two things come in.....

the first is that the producers and directors and Aamir Khan have taken us, the audiences for granted (knowing perhaps that understanding history and its causes is not really an exciting hobby for indians.....except perhaps slander and gossip about politics that is as fleeting as a moment).....they thought that they would give us a hero about whom the only thing we know is his name and his revolt.....so they had to repackage him, throw in a few romantic moments (and a dance and song thrown in...the magic of Bollywood would collapse if they dont put in songs u c) and make him a conquering general when he was anything but (he said in his trials that he didnt remember anything....uncharacteristic of a true patriot wont u say?...and it was deduced that he was under the influence of hashish when he commited his acts).....well though its true that you need some embellishments to make your films attractive to mass audiences (who definately wont like a documentary...), does that give them a license to make up a fanciful story? it dosent, but they would get away with that, because all we want is bravado on screen, dosnt matter to us that it dishonours the hundreds of thousands of people who fought and died for the cause in 1857....their story still needs to be told and truthfully.....

the second point is about the protests.....its a farce.....it centres about the fact of Pandey being shown going to brothels and drinking and that his hometown has not been mentioned....jeez....egos has been hurt u c....the first two because he was a brahmin and they were supposed to have never done that....what do they think india "land of sati and child marriage" was? and guess who promoted both of them? brahmins....well.....and about his hometown...yes thats a legitimate complaint, what is not legitimate is the manner of protest.....they are calling for banning of the showing of the movie, no discussion, no debates, no taking of opinion, just pure goebellian polemics....surely not what Amartya Sen had in mind when he wrote "the argumentative indian"....egos have been hurt and perhaps the film will be banned because the politicians in UP have the elections in mind (the brahmin vote u c and the population of ballia-pandey's hometown-is not small either)....

so we have had tragedy and farce being played with history at the same time....

and the real issue has been buried.....

that makers of films or writers of novels or editors in newspapers and public figures have a duty towards people, that is of honesty in their works and of not taking the people for fools.....and when we are dealing with our own history, history which has shaped us and will shape us for generations to come, the tolerance level becomes very narrow...or it should.....even if its for entertainment the facts need to be treated objectively...the last thing history needs is glorification and partisan issues and political games being made out of it.....