There are few movies nowadays that start a movement or mobilise people so much that one feels passionate enough to support its cause and to adopt its core theme or idea as one's leitmotiv in life or to start protests against it! :D
PK is clearly one of them. To see the earthlings from the perspective of an alien, who questions all existing belief systems is enlightening! For all those, who choose to oppose its message of letting God take care of himself/ herself and not resorting to violence to defend their faith, one dialogue is enough:
God doesn't need puny humans to defend him!
Who are we to try and 'save' the creator?! It's like showing a lamp to the sun to help it glow a bit more. :D
It also reminds me of the famous Kabir couplets that question the Hindu as well as Muslim traditions:
पाहन पूजे हरि मिले तो मैं पूजूँ पहार |
ताते तो चाकी भली पीस खाय संसार ||
(Literal translation: If praying to a stone helps one find God, then I'd rather pray to the mountain. Much better than this is the millstone that grinds flour and feeds the humanity.)
कांकर पाथर जोड़ के मस्जिद लई बनाय |
ता चढ़ि मुल्ला बाँग दे , क्या बहरा हुआ खुदाए ?
(Literal translation: Some stones were gathered and a mosque was built. And the mullah climbs on top of that and crows - Has God gone deaf?)
An article in the newspaper today put it very well: Had Kabir been alive today, he'd have been lynched by people trying to save and protect God!!!
We are becoming more and more intolerant and closed-to-logic by the day... it's a world, where disrespecting another's belief and violently or very rudely justifying one's own belief system has become the order of the day. Where has logic gone in all this? It takes an 'alien' to show us the mirror; of what we have accepted over the years unquestioningly. It's laughable how we divide the human race into various categories based on skin colour, appearance, certain characteristics or the faith that one is mostly born or stamped with and has no control over. And then we build stereotypes and let them grow into solid walls of unfounded prejudice.
There is hope after all in Supreme Court's verdict on the cases filed in the court against PK: "If you don't like the film, don't watch it!" Bravo! :D
Here's hoping that we can 'see' beyond what is apparent or what has been handed down to us as tradition over centuries. And that we can break the walls of not just racial and religious prejudices, but also of border prejudices. Hope the day comes soon when we can say that we are proud / happy to be human beings rather than limiting ourselves to man-made boundaries!
PK is clearly one of them. To see the earthlings from the perspective of an alien, who questions all existing belief systems is enlightening! For all those, who choose to oppose its message of letting God take care of himself/ herself and not resorting to violence to defend their faith, one dialogue is enough:
God doesn't need puny humans to defend him!
Who are we to try and 'save' the creator?! It's like showing a lamp to the sun to help it glow a bit more. :D
It also reminds me of the famous Kabir couplets that question the Hindu as well as Muslim traditions:
पाहन पूजे हरि मिले तो मैं पूजूँ पहार |
ताते तो चाकी भली पीस खाय संसार ||
(Literal translation: If praying to a stone helps one find God, then I'd rather pray to the mountain. Much better than this is the millstone that grinds flour and feeds the humanity.)
कांकर पाथर जोड़ के मस्जिद लई बनाय |
ता चढ़ि मुल्ला बाँग दे , क्या बहरा हुआ खुदाए ?
(Literal translation: Some stones were gathered and a mosque was built. And the mullah climbs on top of that and crows - Has God gone deaf?)
An article in the newspaper today put it very well: Had Kabir been alive today, he'd have been lynched by people trying to save and protect God!!!
We are becoming more and more intolerant and closed-to-logic by the day... it's a world, where disrespecting another's belief and violently or very rudely justifying one's own belief system has become the order of the day. Where has logic gone in all this? It takes an 'alien' to show us the mirror; of what we have accepted over the years unquestioningly. It's laughable how we divide the human race into various categories based on skin colour, appearance, certain characteristics or the faith that one is mostly born or stamped with and has no control over. And then we build stereotypes and let them grow into solid walls of unfounded prejudice.
There is hope after all in Supreme Court's verdict on the cases filed in the court against PK: "If you don't like the film, don't watch it!" Bravo! :D
Here's hoping that we can 'see' beyond what is apparent or what has been handed down to us as tradition over centuries. And that we can break the walls of not just racial and religious prejudices, but also of border prejudices. Hope the day comes soon when we can say that we are proud / happy to be human beings rather than limiting ourselves to man-made boundaries!
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