Bollywood & the communal divide

Mumbai`s chilling terrorist attack and alleged involvement of Pakistan is keeping the air crackling with tension at the moment. People are also talking about the divide surfacing again after a comparative peaceful time in the past few years. However, going by Bollywood`s recent films, both mainstream and off-beat, the industry has been pretty level-headed about conflict between the two communities.

Look at films like Aamir, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Shoot on Sight and Firaaq. One must give due credit to the tinsel town for not emphasising the so-called divide and being level-headed about it. In real life too, no one turns a hair when a Muslim film star marries a Hindu girl or vice versa. In celluloid portrayals, if the parents are against a love-affair between a Hindu and a Muslim, this is because of their religious conditioning, which smoothens out with the birth of a grandchild. Mani Ratnam`s Bombay is a case in point.

Text: SText: Shoma A Chatterji/TWF

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