The over-simplistic categorisation of Muslims in movies, where the majority is presumed to be terrorists or their sympathisers, is fraught with double standards.
As Priyanka Chopra issued an apology via Twitter Saturday for hurting Indian sentiments in the latest episode of her US television series Quantico, she brought to light, once again, the hypocritical outlook Indians have, especially when the majority community is concerned. The episode ‘The Blood of Romeo’ showed a plot involving Indian Hindu terrorists.
The actress not just expressed regret over hurting “sentiments”, but also emphasised her nationality in an attempt to prove her loyalty to her country.
“I’m extremely saddened and sorry that some sentiments have been hurt by a recent episode of Quantico. That was not and would never be my intention. I sincerely apologise. I’m a proud Indian and that will never change.”
I’m extremely saddened and sorry that some sentiments have been hurt by a recent episode of Quantico. That was not and would never be my intention. I sincerely apologise. I'm a proud Indian and that will never change.
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) June 9, 2018
While the possibility that Hindu extremism exists might seem unfathomable to majority of Indians, we seem to have no issues associating the Muslim community with terrorism and violence.
Bollywood’s muscle man of the 90s, Sunny Deol, delivered most of his hits labelling Muslims and Pakistanis as the evil that plots to hurt India.
A film like ‘Jaal: The Trap’ displayed the protagonist’s Hindu identity (forward video to 10.23) in an overwhelming fashion. Every time Sunny Deol outsmarted the terrorists, ‘Om Namah Shivay’ would play in the background. His wife, played by Tabu, who ends up betraying him is revealed to be, yes you guessed it right, a Muslim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32JGMcJp_lA
Films like ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’ and ‘The Hero: Love Story of a Spy’ followed the same trope – a righteous Indian Hindu hero pitted against the Muslim villain.
In ‘The Hero: Love Story of a Spy’, Priyanka Chopra, incidentally, plays the only positive Muslim character in the movie. Her character, Shaheen, is the daughter of one of the main villains. Not only does Deol use her to get to her father, she ends up dead trying to help him defeat the bad guys.
Various Muslim groups had protested against objectionable scenes in Sunny Deol’s blockbuster ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’. Sunny Deol didn’t apologise to the community rather the movie rode high on success, benefitting from the controversies.
This over-simplistic categorisation of Muslims in binaries of good and evil, with majority falling on the evil side and presumed to be terrorists or their sympathisers, highlights the double standards in our nationalism.
This is the brand of nationalism we seem to be comfortable with where we wouldn’t blink before throwing Muslims under the bus.
If art is meant to imitate life, then we need to stop and contemplate on the shame and harassment we subject the minority community to, through patriotic and commercial cinema.
If the Hindu community deserves Priyanka Chopra’s apology for portraying them in such a negative light, one has to start counting the number of apologies Sunny Deol owes to our Muslim brethren.
Sunny Deol has depicted muslims correctly in all his movies and there is no question of any apology. While all muslims are not terrorists, it is true that all terrorists are indeed muslims. There are two categories of terrorists among muslims. First category of muslims are those who kill innocent people. They aren’t so dangerous, they are easily identifiable and they are in smaller numbers who can be easily silenced with just a bullet piercing their skulls. The second category of muslims are those who silently support the first category. They are extremely dangerous since they have the cunningness to hide their real intentions. They practice taqiya. They lie to justify their actions. They quote wrong examples, distort facts, create false stories and propagate hatred disguised as love.. The whole world knows that islam is all about violence but they yet try to claim that it is religion of peace. There is an instant transformation in a muslim’s character, attitude, language and nature as he/she is travels through a Hindu dominated area. In 2015, a 15 year old muslim boy accompanied by his 3 brothers and 1 cousin was confidently doing goondagardi on a train. He had presumed that his gang of 5 was invincible. However, when a passenger got irked and took out his knife to stab him, the same boy started begging for his life. That is the reality of muslims. They first try to talk sweet to create a good impression, then they slowly increase their population, then when they feel sufficiently secured, they try to do goondagardi but the moment they realize that Hindus are mightier, then they immediately change their colour like a chameleon and start talking peace painting themselves as victims.
What a load of garbage. So automatically three billion people are your enemies. How about Hindu terrorism!
Every day Hindus kill Muslims . Terrorism has occured because Western Nations keep going into Muslim countries killing children and women and taking their wealth .
Hindus rape their own children and women. They sell their girls, the prime minister has killed hundreds and he cannot even speak English properly.
Muslims are strong in India and there are two hundred million. You think they will sit back and wAtch you violate their rights? Think again because all you are inviting is more terrorism !
Judging someone based on their English speaking abilities shows how big of a scum you are, looks like I forgot to “punish” your mom yesterday
Well this is really a reality of now a days. Good observation, keep it up your good work. Since most of comment-ier focusing on the movie stated as example overlooking the main content, the same way you can overlooked their comment.
The writer needs some sense as he needs to see the said sunny deol’s only depicted terrorists in negative frame and in Gadar there were certain Muslim characters played which were portrayed good as well. The said movie was based on backdrop of violence during independence era and particularly against no individual religion. It was also shown in movie that in initial scene sunny deol fought with characters depicted Sikh when they wanted to take revenge from amisha patel’s character . Sikh people never made any issue out of it. The only reason because they are sane.
Very Immaturely written Article n Berry Idiot Author.
As far as GADAR is concerned, Indian Muslims have been praised there. Watch GADAR Movie first n then Comment. Priyanka’s Rediculous Work is diametrically opposite to Aunt Deol’s Movie….
SHAME on You The PRINT. ( Brother of THE QUINT )
Go and watch Gadar once again you will realise why Sunny Deol should apologize idiotic Sakshi Arora and third class news portal theprint..
Terrorism right now is completely synonymous with Islam, if you are following and aware what is happening in the world.just to declare yourself secular and pseudo intellectual you are writing anything which supports muslims.
Hindu terrorism is a myth. Hindu criminality is a reality.
Pakistani terrorism is a reality. Muslim criminality is a reality.
I hate it when the press pretends to be secular and ends up creating even more of a divide.
Pakistan is an enemy country. And it happens to be a Muslim country. And it happens to be one of the BIGGEST ENDORESERS OF TERRORISM. So depicting that in a movie is not unrealistic or unreasonable.
That does not mean we’re working against the Indian Muslims. They are Indians first. And Indians are peaceful.
The funny thing is how you guys help in the idea people have in their minds that Muslims are Muslims first and then they belong to whichever country. Their loyalty first lies in their religion and the Muslim brotherhood, and then to their country.
Get a bloody grip. You’re helping in the spread of this propaganda, and believe it or not, if you say it long enough, it gets converted to reality.
So stop being sickulars. When something is wrong, call it out. Declaring Indians as idiots is realistic. We have a tendency to be incredibly stupid, as you have just proven.
Declaring Pakistanis as dangerous and radical Muslims is equally realistic. It again doesnt mean everyone is the same.
Good and bad everywhere.
Dear Editor please hire someone who have brain , this news twitter doesn’t even have a story and nor does he have a brain to distinguish between what priyanka did and what sunny deol did…… Illiterate article writers should stop being a cry baby and start seeing what is good and what is bad….
The incident of sunny deol doesn’t even match with the incident with priyanka chopra…..
No wonder your news channel is not known to anyone because you don’t even know how to write a news article and how to make sense.
Brilliant article Ms. Sakshi Arora. Absolutely on point. I admire your courage for calling a spade a spade. Keep up the good work.
You think being a hindu and blowing up Manhattan station is anywhere close to reality ?
How many times have hindu terrorist blown up places with bombs?
How is that even comparable to sunny deol’s role as a hindu fighting muslim terrorists…. Muslims being terrorist is the closest thing to reality dear …that is understandable….Hindus have suffered for 700 years at the hands of muslim terrorists….
Now tell me what is spot on?
“Brilliant article”!!!!!???????
There are some media outfits which one thinks have the potential to reach the quality equivalent of say New York Times, even if these are hugely left-liberal. I thought that THE PRINT has that potential because of Shekhar Gupta. However, if this media outfit keeps publishing such superficial stuff in which arguments are not just wafer thin, but twisted, and worst reek of agenda, then THE PRINT can only be going the mediocre route.
Useless article, this is just counter Hindu sentiments. Are you(the print)writing by just sake of writing. Journalism tries to please one community, one political party who hates As a one nation.
The writer of this editorial is just mad…no brains, stupid person
Such a piece of shit……The Print you need to work on your writing skills specially on content. The point u are trying to prove is baseless and full of shit. You need to understand the difference between Ajimal Kasab and APJ Abdul Kalam.
Not all Muslims are terrorists. But unless you have been living under a rock, you’ll notice that most terrorists are Muslims. However to come up with Hindu or Christian terrorists in a TV show is something absurd.
SAKSHI ARORA go back to the kitchen! Now days any Kanta bai, Champa bai is becoming a journalist and writing articles on the internet.
The comment section just shows the bigotry we’re surrounded with. People are so brainwashed with the mainstream they won’t dare to step aside and THINK for a moment.
Keep going.
Perhaps the writer should have watched the movies before commenting on them.
Madam, perhaps you should have watched the movies once more before commenting on them.
I must say the Author was high while writhing this post. It’s a divisive politics played by most of the Extremist to gain publicity by the idea of secularism.
Quantico depiction was against the country “India” not on any religious community.
Please understand and if possible forward the idea “Terrorism is the religion adopted by every terrorist”.
He/She can never be a follower of Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism etc.
For better clarification of my view Please watch Amir Khan’s SARFAROSH or Sunny Deol’s INDIAN.
Sunny Deol movies were based on real terrorist events, while Priyanka Chopra’s movie h shows Indians trying to bomb USA to frame Pakistanis. Difference is that Sunny Deol is shown as One Man Army, while in real life agroup of Indian soldiers, ATS, Police, BSF fight with terrorist and there is no Sunny Deol, Rajinikanth in real life.
Gadar and The Hero-Love story of a Spy had Pakistani villains. the movies didn’t have Muslim villains from Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Somalia. If Pakistanis are shown as Hindu, Buddhist, Christian names that would be ridiculous.
Your article is based on absurdities and half truths. Sunny Deol never used any expression against any religion, he was only portraying an Indian patriot / nationalist character with full zeal and his dialogues were mostly against Pakistan categorized as hostile country in the movies. The author is unnecessary trying to club Muslims as Pakistanis and create a Hindu / Muslim divide which none exists. The Print should well ensure the authenticity of the article before allowing writers to publish a false analogy.
Art should mimic life. Taking forwardthis argument, Indian movie art have mimicked life. Muslim community wanted separate homeland. Then Pakistan attacked India in, 1947,1965,1971 and in 2000. Indian plane was hijacked to Kandahar. Terrorists attacked Mumbai and killed several people. If a filmmaker depicts this anger of Indians in a movie, does his art not mimic life? Even if we accept a terrorist can be Hindu, has any Hindu gone ahead and bombed someone else’s country? The whole concept of Hindu terror was debunked by US intelligence agencies. Those arrested in charge of Hindu terror were released. Coming to serial Quantico, how can someone identify a terrorist to be Hindu based on Rudraksh rosary? A non Hindu is not banned from carrying one. The plot is even more ridiculous, if not sinister, because Indian is shown to plant a nuclear device and implicate Pakistan. A nation that has been most responsible on the nonproliferation front is being implicated, while the most irresponsible entity is given a free ride. India has been victim of Pakistan sponsored terror, we have lost lives, and author is arguing in favor of art mimicking life and showing an Indian to be terrorist.
Like other people mentioned here, this author is generalizing as if all muslims are Pakistanis.
My muslim friends were hurt watching that scene from episode of Quantico will be hurt again when I show this article to them.
My suggestion to the author: Clear your mind before you try to make a point.
Muslims are not over simplified by us.. its you who are generalizing them.
Why do you refer to the villains as ” Muslims” and not ” pakistanis ” wguch is the case in majority of the movies you have mentioned above. I think by that you are implying that all muslims are pakistanis…aren’t you? And my dear in Gadar he married a Pakistani muslim.
So stop creating this divide.. if the ind8an shown in the Quantico episode was a Muslim you would hear the same outrage from all the Indians. It was the nationality that was questioned here not the religion.
PS : I am against mixing politics with art but had tk reply you back on your generalized thinking which is sadly the case with pseudo intellectuals in our country
Like ur point –
“Gadar he married a Pakistani muslim”
To add to he also said “Pakistaan Zindabaad”
Wat else people want hear. Dont drag Mr. Deol into this.
To the writer: Please get a life and go find something good to write. Your point is pointless.
All the movies mentioned above have pakistanies as bad guys & not Indian Muslims
The print just keep your mouth and pen quiet.
Please do NOT write for the sake of writing; and please do NOT publish articles just for the sake of gaining readership. This article is such a shallow piece that it can be shredded in less than half-a-dozen counter points, but that will be a waste of time, as commenting on it is.
Completely agree with Rajesh R. Please realize that to up your articles readership, you shouldn’t resort to such socially divisive tactics, what kind of person are you, sakshi arora!? Is this a desperate attempt to save your job because no one reads when you make sense!? And if that’s not case and you actually believe what you wrote, then may God help you and all of us!
Please do not comment for the sake of commenting. The writer has a point. If priyanka has to apologize for a fictional story about hindu terrorist, then how about other tv series and movies that have shown muslims as terrorists? There are extremists terrorists in all religion. The dispicable people who raped a little girl in kashmir are terrorists too. Terrorism exits in different forms and there are bad people in every religion. If you are offended by a fictional story of a hindu terrorist, then shouldn’t millions of good muslims be offended by the movies that portray them as terrorists?
You think being a hindu and blowing up Manhattan station is anywhere close to reality ?
How many times have hindu terrorist blown up places with bombs?
How is that even comparable to sunny deol’s role as a hindu fighting muslim terrorists…. Muslims being terrorist is the closest thing to reality dear …that is understandable….Hindus have suffered for 700 years at the hands of muslim terrorists….
Now tell me what what does writter says correct?
A terrorist being portrayed as terrorist is justifiable but a hindu being portrayed aa aterrorist is not sickular retard!
Pakistani muslims are bombing and killing indians that was a truth was deflected in deols film why shud he apologise how many hindus bombed pakis or american manhattan..ppl like vivek hiding behind somebody is dare enough to blame to please muslims sametime degrading hindus.