Sitting at work and as usual getting bored, I was browsing through web pages. A Friday afternoon at work means looking at time till it shows 5 or finding something else better to do. I chose the latter. It started with finding movies to watch over the weekend and somehow I ended up reading My Name is Khan reviews. I had seen the movie before and wanted to see what people in US think of all the hype that this movie has. Much has been said about this movie and I don’t intend to add to it. Although I came across a review in New York Times and my day unexpectedly got interesting. Not because of the review but the comments below. Here is the link to it.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/movies/13name.html?partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes&ei=5083
The comments were a really interesting read and indicative of the fact that different people can have dangerously conflicting opinion on a particular issue.
There were lot of comments which can be seen in this form or the other popping up in many sources of media. They are thus categorized.
Bollywood and Hollywood Comparison:
Bollywood always makes flamboyantly colorful movies, different from mainstream Hollywood movies.
-comments generally from people not from India
Bollywood movies are for no brainers unlike Hollywood movies. - From Indians generally
(Although I feel a lot of Hollywood movies are no brainers too.)
One notable comment in this regard goes;
In so many Hollywood movies, including casts like Dicaprio, Brad Pitt or Matt Damon, the east, the africa and so many 'foreign' places are portrayed to adjust the taste of American audiance, which in many cases are hilarious and often derogatory
dgsubhajit , Austin, TX
Every time there is a Hindi movie released when people say it’s an intelligent or not a no brainer movie, there will be others who will all of a sudden become scientists and engineers to find technical faults in the movie. (Like in this one; all roads seem to lead through the Joshua Tree National Park or how did he reach Wilhelmina walking through floods or; from San Francisco to DC, why was he in Georgia? etc)
The Religious Debate:
Between people there will always be two opinions (both conflicting each other in a way) when there is a movie (or anything) talking solely about Islam. One set of people supporting the movie saying that it was a good reflection of Islam, which is seldom seen in media these days. Then there is another set of people who say: we live in a muslin appeasing world. Why try to build ‘Muslims victimized’ image? Why concentrate on woes of Muslims in minority and not those of other religions in Muslim majority etc. This is true the other way too. Misguided hatred or anguish always sparks fights. A lot of fights, rude conversations, rant and should I say “gaali-galoch” happens when a sensitive issue is posted as a video or news item or blog on the internet. If you check YouTube, even non-related videos get comments which spark of these worthless fights. In the comment lines all you see is people swearing at each other!
Do we really need all this?
Islam and Terrorism correlation:
Again a sensitive issue, this one debated worldwide. One group against the branding of all Muslims as terrorists saying terrorism has no religion. The other set of people arguing that Muslims are not terrorists but vast majority of terrorists are Muslims and so on and on and on….
Love:
When people have conflicting opinion it can prove to be very dangerous to them and others. All diatribe will cause is hatred and pain. I guess that is why the comment that really made my day was the one below
“My Name is Khan” is a hero fantasy. The hero takes the biggest risk that any human being can take: he risks love. As a true hero, he pays the price for love, and he loves anyway. Finally, I was forced to ask myself, what is so fantastic about love?
My wife told me that taking her to this movie on Valentine's day was the most romantic Valentine of her life. And my wife does not lie to me.
– JimB from NC , charlotte, NC
And by the way, I liked the movie. :)
