Laal Singh Chaddha – what’s all this noise about?

I haven’t seen Laal Singh Chaddha (LSC) and don’t know whether I would see it – not because it’s produced by Aamir Khan who also plays the main protagonist but because the movie hasn’t aroused enough pre release interest in spite of all the controversies surrounding it. 

Frankly speaking, it could be attributed to my ignorance that I am not aware of the reason for these controversies and the grudge that a certain section of audience seems to be holding against Aamir Khan. Is it purportedly due to his character in PK where Hindu gods were rather depicted in slightly distasteful manner or Aamir’s views on certain national issues? In either of the cases, call for boycott of LSC is not justified. A movie is a director’s medium that converts thoughts of a story teller into a visual artistry. An actor is a mere portrayer of these thoughts. PK was a Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani, my favourite director’s, film. The message was, like his previous films, against blind faith and rituals and not per se against any faith. Being a Hindu majority country, may be focus on Hindu gods was probably more than those of other faiths. But in a free country, anyone is allowed to express his/her thoughts as long as these don’t overly hurt the sensitivity of any section. And in any case, all commercial releases in this country go through a very elaborate censor process. I think Hinduism as a religion and faith is resilient enough to have survived over centuries in spite of repeated assaults on it and if there’s a depiction of something that’s considered objectionable by a section, it can certainly not be treated as an insult of this great faith. 

The same applies to Aamir’s personal views, which should be seen in the light of an individual’s freedom to express him or herself rather than views of a superstar who may he following a faith other than that followed by a vast majority! 

The beauty lies in the fact that in spite of all the hate mongers, this country loves its three superstar Khans and notwithstanding increasing polarisation on religious lines, we continue to have a vast majority of populace living in peace and amity. In any case, an artist – be he/her be an actor, author, singer, painter or creator of any sort- should be seen as not only being above any religion or nationality but also as an individual having a point of view. 

Watching LSC will not lead to endangerment to any faith – more so to great faith called Hinduism. Aamir’s personal thoughts cannot lead to break up of this country. Let’s relish his artistic creativity.  Let’s watch LSC if we want to watch it.