Veteran actor Annu-Kapoor starrer “Hamare Baarah” recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival seems to be at the perpetual receiving end of controversies.
First, the Bombay High Court put a stay on its release, based on a petition filed by Azhar Basha Tamboli, a resident of Pune, questioning certification granted to the movie by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and claiming that the visuals and the dialogues depicted in the trailer were derogatory to the Islamic faith. Following the Bombay High Court stay, the Congress government of Karnataka put a temporary ban on the release of the movie, citing concerns of “communal tensions in the state, if the movie were to be released.
Now, the Supreme Court of Bharat has imposed a stay on the release of “Hamare Baarah”, calling the film’s teaser “offensive”.
The Bombay High Court, which had earlier stayed the movie, recently cleared its release after the producers agreed to remove two contentious dialogues that according to the petitioners were a “distorted representation of the Quran”.
The Supreme Court while listening to a plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision, permitting the release of the film, ruled that the screening of “Hamare Baarah” shall remain suspended until the disposal of the Bombay High Court petition challenging its screening.
Why is Hamare Baarah at the receiving end of court-ordered suspensions and blanket state bans? What is the controversy all about? The Annu-Kapoor starrer movie takes on the rather complex, sensitive, and controversial subject of population explosion in Bharat. It sets out to explore the theme of population explosion through the prism of womanhood; the film offers a critical perspective on the ultra-orthodox mindset in certain communities, treating women as “baby-making machines”. This mindset, the film argues, is rooted in deep-seated religious dogmas and the varying and selective interpretations of certain religious texts to control and subjugate women.
The Hamare Baarah teaser depicts two burqa-clad women featuring Anu Malik in the center with scores of other women in the background; banners of “Hum Do Hamare do” can also be seen in the background. The movie trailer gives us a further glimpse into the story. In the trailer, one comes across Annu Kapoor essaying the role of the elderly head of a Muslim household literally forcing his young wife to bear more kids because “the religious texts” say so. Annu Kapoor, essaying the role of a devout, radical Muslim, can be seen quoting a few verses from Islamic religious texts in the trailer, to justify his demeaning attitude towards women and treating them as “baby-making machines”.
These verses are what the controversy is essentially all about. As the trailer depicts, the story focuses on a Muslim household, so the general refrain of the critics is that bearing more children is a problem in all societies, so why are Muslims being singled out.
The plot of the movie reportedly revolves around a devout radical Muslim called Manzoor Ali Khan Sanjari, played by Annu Kapoor who relentlessly forces his wife into bearing more children, despite the associated health risks. However, when conditions get crucial and his second wife, who is significantly younger than him, gets pregnant the sixth time and the conception puts her life at risk. At this point, his daughter Alfiya reportedly intervenes to save her stepmother and challenges him in the court.
Going by the storyline, there seems nothing about the movie that is derogatory towards Muslims or Islam as such. It puts the spotlight on a sensitive social and feminist issue – women being pressured into bearing more children even at the risk of their health in the name of religious diktats. Thus, the movie, if anything, exposes the hypocrisy of ultra-conservative and radical Muslims who use Islamic doctrines as a tool to exert control over women, trample upon their rights, and force them into submission. I haven’t seen the movie because it hasn’t been released yet, but from what I have read about the story, it doesn’t seem so much critical of Islam per se as of ultra-conservative radical Muslims using religion as a pretext to abuse women.
By exploring the issue of overpopulation in Bharat through the prism of the degradation of women’s rights in ultra-conservative Muslim households, the movie has indeed embraced a highly controversial and murky terrain. We are seeing the same pattern at work here. When it comes to Bollywood movies offending Hindu sensibilities, freedom of speech, creative expression, and liberty are copiously quoted. People are simply given lessons in tolerance and asked to not watch the movie if they do not like it. But if anything is even potentially offensive to the sentiments of a particular community, everything comes to a halt and all of a sudden, “appeasement” becomes more important than creative freedom of expression.
The actors and crew members of “Hamare Baarah” have been issued ISIS-style death threats by Islamists. Annu Kapoor has himself spoken about these threats in various media interviews regarding the controversy surrounding the movie that the women actors are being given rape threats in the worst of abusive language. He can also be seen pleading with the government to provide security to all the cast and crew members who are receiving these threats. In an ANI interview clip, he can be seen asking people to watch the movie and then make judgments.
An article published by OpIndia gives detailed information on the nature of these threats issued to the cast and crew of Hamare Baarah. “Earlier, Islamists had issued ISIS-style death threats to actors and crew members of the movie, unhappy over the movie’s portrayal of Islam. The followers of radical Tahreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan which was founded by the late Khadim Hussain Rizvi and Indian extremist Mufti Salman Azhari used social media, particularly Instagram, to threaten the filmmakers with death. Videos depicting brutal beheadings akin to those carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) accompanied by Islamic hymns and verses were shared to warn the artists. Most social media users who issued the threats are located in Mumbai of Maharashtra’s Thane district and have ties with the Social Democratic Party of India, which is the political wing of the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI)”, says the article.
The cast and crew members of the movie were reportedly issued death threats not just online but also through telephone calls. The movie producer’s phone number has been also made public and the radical Islamists are threatening to kill him over WhatsApp, as per media reports.
It smacks of incredible double standards that there is no outrage or condemnation from the Bollywood brigade and “woke intellectuals” over the death threats issued to the cast and crew members of “Hamare Baarah”. The issue has hardly received the kind of media coverage it deserves; whatever coverage one sees is from the vantage point of the movie potentially hurting the sentiments of a particular community, but are the beheading threats and “sar tan se juda” threats justified?
The movie mostly features first-time actors who must have struggled to bag their first role. Just as they anticipate the release of their first movie, the movie has not only been indefinitely shelved but the personal life and security of the cast and crew are at stake. What kind of a professional industry is Bollywood if it can’t even guarantee safety and security to those who make movies? Or is it that the so-called “film industry” which claims to champion creative liberties applies these only selectively, going by which community is at the receiving end?
The courts have taken cognizance of the objections raised against the movie and given their decision. But shouldn’t the system also take cognizance of the death threats issued to the cast and crew members? Perhaps, the movie team hasn’t approached the courts as such. In that case, they should certainly do that as soon as possible and put forth their version of the story.
From the Charlie Hebdo attacks to the attack on The Satanic Verses writer Salman Rushdie and the multiple death threats issued by radical Islamists to BJP politician Nupur Sharma, the narrative is the same. Freedom of expression and speech applies to all things except when it comes to the sensibilities of a certain community. It’s funny that people who parrot the word secularism all the time give the logic that running so and so movie or publishing so and so book could create “social unrest” because people of a particular community wouldn’t like it and can perhaps resort to violence. So, the onus is always on others to keep “you know who” in good jibe, lest their mood turns sour, and they start issuing death threats. Whatever then does secularism mean anyway?
There have been numerous movies with a critical take on controversial issues within Hindu society and culture. Yet, Hindus haven’t gone around issuing death threats and demanding these movies be banned. Even when it comes to movies that portray social evils that have nothing to do with Hindu Dharma specifically, movie makers have often portrayed them through a biased lens, creating the perception that these social evils are a product of Hindu Dharma.
For example, all movies and popular culture programmes on child marriage exclusively associate the practice with Hindu Dharma, thus stereotyping Hindus in the process, as if child marriages don’t exist in other communities. Similarly, the subject of the treatment of widows in Hindu Dharma has received an exaggerated amount of coverage; there are numerous movies and documentaries on the deplorable condition of widows in Hindu Dharma. How much truth these movies tell and what percentage is an exaggeration is a different subject for discussion. But the point I am trying to make is that popular culture has been conveniently laced with anti-Hindus biases and prejudices. Yet, if any Hindu advocacy group or individual objects to such depictions, they are labeled as bigoted and intolerant. But the same logic is not applied to “you know who”.
“Hamare Baarah” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Yet, the Bharatiya media coverage of the festival didn’t cover any news related to the movie. Whether Annu Kapoor-starrer Hamare Baarah will see the light of day or be shelved forever, only time will tell. But with the phenomenal rise in OTT platforms, mainstream Bollywood no longer enjoys the kind of hegemony it used to. New and relatively unknown filmmakers are increasingly venturing into hitherto taboo territories and taking up more and more offbeat and courageous subjects for filmmaking. Thus, for how long will the woke Bollywood ecosystem be able to control the narrative of filmmaking in Bharat is an interesting and relevant question of your times.
