Why I support the decision to remove the movie Annapoorani from Netflix

It seems movies and TV series made in India are constantly competing with one another to show how important it is to dismantle age-old traditions and challenge beliefs of Hindus that have lasted for thousands of years.

The movie Annapoorani is the latest example. I haven’t seen the movie. Whatever I’m writing here, I’m writing it after reading on Twitter and various news websites.

Besides, this is not a commentary on the film, but on the general perception that you can easily toy around with Hindu beliefs while never questioning the beliefs and practices of other religions such as Islam and Christianity in India.

In fact, it’s become too predictable.

Show a nasty Hindu priest. Show a traditional Brahmin family with psychopathic tendencies. Show a rapist sadhu who assaults a woman after offering prayers in a temple.

Ponga pandit. Dhongi sadhu. Gunaho Ka Devta. Bagula Bhagat.

Do you ever hear such condescending expressions for a Muslim maulvi or a Christian priest or a Sikh gyani ji. Never.

When was it the last time you saw a devout Hindu doing something good in a mainstream Indian movie?

So, please excuse Hindus if they have become extra-sensitive about such nonsensical, insulting and Hinduphobic depictions. Enough is enough.

Annapoorani:

There is a young girl in the movie who wants to become a successful chef.

A Muslim, can you believe it, convinces the daughter of a temple priest that Lord Ram was a meat eater. If nothing else, the movie deserves censure because of this.

Then, there is a cooking competition in the movie. Before cooking meat, the female protagonist wears a hijab, offers a namaz, and then cooks biriyani (usually, a non-vegetarian delicacy).

How cringingly ridiculous can it be?

If this isn’t provocative, what is your definition of being provocative?

And if you don’t find this provocative, can they ever show (I apologise to Muslim readers for dragging them into this) a Muslim protagonist cooking pork as a condition to compete in a cooking competition? No, then you will say they’re hurting Muslim sentiments and they had it coming in case they are attacked.

Nobody should believe when the makers of the movie issue an apology and say, “We have no intentions to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and Brahmin community.”

This is an out and out provocation and it is meant to hurt sentiments, and there is no doubt.

A Muslim boy tells a Brahmin girl that it’s fine to cook meat because Lord Ram ate meat.

The girl wears a hijab and offers namaz.

After offering namaz, going against her Brahmin roots and family, she cooks a non-vegetarian dish.

If this is not in-your-face provocation, what is?

Why does Annapoorani take an easy way out?

Wouldn’t she be more courageous if she showed her talent while sticking to her roots?

Why couldn’t she challenge the conventional belief that you cannot become a good chef without cooking non-vegetarian food?

Why can’t she become a reputed chef while sticking to vegetarian gourmet?

Why such regressive thinking when more and more people in the world are recognizing the importance of sticking to a vegetarian diet?

Plain and simple. They want to provoke and taunt Hindus.

I’m not a fan of censorship. Diverse opinions should be welcomed. Moviemakers have a right to be controversial. They must be able to challenge age-old beliefs.

But this is not the point. The problem is that in the name of provoking beliefs, it has become a one-sided propaganda.

Why should only Hindu beliefs be targeted? Why not target Muslim beliefs? Why not target Buddhist, Sikh, or Christian beliefs for a change?

When they show a Muslim priest, or a Christian priest, or a Sikh priest as a villain, without ambiguity, when they can make fun of the practices of these religions without having to spend the rest of their lives in hiding, I will be fine with movies like Annapoorani.

Until then, no.

Too bad.