If you are not happy with this one, go make your own pk

As expected Raju Hirani's recent movie 'pk' created a lot of controversy because of the subject it dealt with, the bad practices in religion. Some lunatics are claiming that it hurts their religious sentiments (no surprise here). As expected these people are demanding to ban this movie, but their argument has no legal or logical sense. So, as usual, they are trying to attack movie theaters and attack the messenger rather than the message. This is not the first time any movie has been targeted like this or people are demanding to ban something because their so-called sentiments are hurt. Surprisingly these are the same people who also like to claim that India is a very tolerant country and Hinduism is a very tolerant religion. The good thing is that this time apart from some right-wing Hindu groups some Muslim and Christian groups are also against this movie, so it seems every religious group is feeling offended by this movie. Maybe this is because pk is not against a particular religion or section of society but it attacks on commercialization of religion and exposes attempts to scare people in the name of god. This movie also like another similar movie 'Oh My God' doesn't attack the concept of God or doesn't question the existence of God, I guess in a country like India no commercial filmmaker can dare to do that. The movie just raises some uncomfortable questions about the way people practice their faith in today's world. These questions try to expose the way religion is marketed today. I guess this is why many people and organizations who depend on such things to make their living or who are addicted to such marketing are getting offended. 

I always wonder why don't these people or organizations make some movie that can counter the points raised in 'pk'? Many of these organizations are very rich, they collect a lot of money from donations from various sources, and they even have very strong political backing, so all resources required to make a movie is definitely not a problem for them. These people also claim to know everything about their religion. If this is the case, then for them it should not be a big deal to write a good script that can prove a movie like 'pk' wrong, and expose every lie. If they are so sure then they should be able to expose the lies propagated by Raju Hirani and company easily. There is no need to damage public or private property, no need to create a law and order situation. Just one movie or even a documentary exposing 'pk' is enough. If they don't want to make a movie because it is too much of a hassle then they can even challenge people associated with this movie for civilized debate or drag them to court. They also have the right to protest or raise their objections but in a lawful and civilized way, why don't they do that? Does their religion teach them to use violent ways for such trivial things? If yes, then what type of religion is that which can not tolerate disagreement or questions? If not, then why they are going against the teaching of their own religion?  

The main purpose of any movie is to entertain people, they sometimes also try to deliver some message using this platform of entertainment. If any such attempt provokes discussion or raises some questions in people's minds then any such attempt should be welcomed, not attacked. Many mythological movies show many nonscientific things under the name of miracles but scientists or atheists who don't believe in such things don't go and attack cinema halls showing these movies or demand to ban them. In any civilized and tolerant society, everyone has freedom of expression. This freedom should be protected and cherished. The freedom of expression is very important for the progress of any society or country. People of every country have to decide in which direction they want to take their country; conservative and intolerant or liberal and tolerant, choice is theirs.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]

Links:
1. 'Oh My God'- A courageous attempt in main stream Hindi cinema.
2. My favorite scene from movie OMG.