This week the Shiv Sena in Mumbai decided to ask Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan to go home because they wouldn't be allowed to promote their movies Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Raees , respectively, in India. Incidentally, Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil also features Imran Abbas, another Pakistani actor.
The Shiv Sena doesn't want Pakistanis to play or perform in India. Let's agree with that, we don't want anything Pakistani on our soil. But then let's go the whole hog. Let's also ban Munni badnaam huyi , the foot-tapping Malaika Arora item song in Dabangg, from playing anywhere in India since that catchy line (and tune) came from across the border. Way back in 1992, a qawwali that went Larka badnam hua haseena tere liye was heard in the Pakistani film, Mr Charlie, while Dabangg came along only in 2010.
A list that was published in The Express Tribune from Karachi named the many Hindi film songs that were unabashed rip-offs of Pak originals. This includes the Amitabh Bachchan number Main na jhoot bolun (Indrajeet , 1991), which bears a strong resemblance to the 1980s' election rally and campaign music of the Pakistan People's Party.
The newspaper rapped Indian composers and lyricists on the knuckles and pointed out that even Pakistan's patriotic numbers "were not spared" as Dil dil Hindustan from the film Yaadon Ke Mausam was a straight lift of the number Dil dil Pakistan .
Madhuri Dixit's Mera piya ghar aaya was a copy of a Rahat Fateh Ali Khan qawwali. Akshay Kumar's Tu cheez badi hai mast mast in Mohra helped itself to Pakistan's Dam mast qalandar mast mast. Nadeem-Shravan's chartbuster Bahut pyaar karte hai tumko sanam from Saajan borrowed heavily from Mehdi Hassan's Bahut khubsoorat hai mera sanam in the 1978 Pakistani film Abshar. Whether Aashiqui or Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya or Gangster , all these Hindi films have flicked Pakistani tunes with impunity, without giving due credit to the inspiration from across the border.
So when we ban all things Pakistan, shouldn't we ban their creative work as well? I guess that's a question the Sena wouldn't like to answer.
On the flip side, there's a question that the self-crowned "civil society" won't like either. Much has been said about the recent incidents involving writer-politician Sudheendra Kulkarni and J&K MLA Engineer Rashid. They are crude, reprehensible instances of people taking the law into their own hands and cannot be condoned. But how come the same civil society applauded an Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at George Bush in Baghdad? Why did that rate a "wah " from men like Mahesh Bhatt, who even introduced the Iraqi journalist at a play on the same subject in Mumbai? If throwing a shoe at someone whose politics you disapproved of was justified, why did blackening the face of a person for the same reason receive so much flak?
Going from politics to cinema, two filmmakers also found it uncomfortable when a question was put to each of them.
The first was Vinod Chopra. At a function for his new film, Waaris , where Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar were introduced as the main cast, I asked, "Who plays the title role? Amitabh or Farhan?" Amitabh put on his best poker face while Farhan waited for someone else to answer it. Vinod Chopra jumped in and joked tamely, "I am playing waaris." It was an unexpected googly for the team because it's neither Amitabh nor Farhan who plays the title role. It's another actor (whose name shall remain undisclosed for now) and he has been kept largely out of the promotional events although he fleetingly figures in a trailer of the film. His turning out to be the waaris is supposed to be the twist in the tale.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali was similarly at a loss for words when I asked him pointblank if he was happy that things hadn't worked out with his original Bajirao, Salman Khan. With young Ranveer Singh now playing the Peshwa king in the spectacularly made Bajirao Mastan , was Bhansali pleased?
Unable to be completely forthright, Sanjay grinned. His eyes twinkled and he finally said, "What I can admit is that nobody could have worked with the kind of dedication that Ranveer has given Bajirao . He would listen to tapes endlessly to get the right Marathi accent and speech," disclosed Sanjay. It was Ranveer's complete sincerity to his work during the filming of Ram-Leela that swung Sanjay's mind in his favour.
Sanjay specialises in creating the perfect cultural ambience for his films and Bajirao showcases the splendour of the Peshwa regime in Maharashtra. Though he's a Gujarati, he is essentially a Mumbai boy, at home with Marathi. He was, therefore, in his comfort zone when he recreated Maharashtra for his new film.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author
