Islamist angle to ‘The Mighty Heart’

The difference between the Hindu and Muslim intelligentsia is that they both achieve the same desired ends, mostly. But the Hindu is left bruised and almost forsaken whereas the Muslim becomes the hero of a struggle against inequality.

When Deepa mehta embarked on making a film called ‘Water’ about some old ritual in Varanasi, she found herself on the wrong side of the story as she didn’t take into consideration the sentiments of the people of the holy city of Varansai and the Hindus of India. How much ever truth prevails in the story the reaction of the public was initially rubbished of. Later when the KSRSS(Kashi Sanskriti Raksha Sangharsh Samiti) launched and agitation to stop the filming, the protests were termed fundamental and the artists society of India turned in numbers to give their opinions about the issue and why such protests need to stopped. The same issues happened when her earlier film called ‘Fire’ was released on lesbianism in a society where things of these sorts were not openly discussed. One wonders what fire and water her next ‘Wind’ will bring
upon India.

Contrast this with the happening of the last two days in Mumbai. An English film unit is given permission to shoot for a movie in Mumbai.They have been the talk of the town as the actress, Angelina Jolie is quite popular in India. So is her boy friend Brad Pitt. We have seen the media and paparazzi trace them all over the country. They were even given permission by the government and a school to shoot their
movie.

The other side of the story. The school is run by the Anjuman-e-islam,a pro conservative muslim organisation that has always been in the news for the wrong reason ( the hubli maidan conflict is the initiative of the Anjuman-e-islam ). Is there a possibility they didn’t know what the movie was all about? Didn’t they know the movie was being shot about Daniel Pearl, the famous spy-Jew journalist who
was kidnapped and killed in Paskistan as he was investigating a story about the links of the ISI with Al Qaeeda?

Anjelina Jolie’s bodyguards are not on her film sets for the first time. They have been to countless movie sets and know how to behave and how they need to get tough when it comes to any kind of attack on the actress from the public or from paparazzi’s.

So what ticked them off to go on an offensive against some protesters? Did Angelina and the crew actually lock up children without food and water and disrupt the school from functioning? Is this expected from an actress who is travelling around the world promoting the need to help needful children?

Was this a conspiracy by the Muslim organisation to have the state government cancel the shooting permit for this movie? Was the media to blame for over exposing a small incident in retaliation for not given access for her media interviews?