I really like Aamir Khan. He is a great actor and all that. Industry walllahs sing paeans about his perfectionist attitude. Aamir Khan does great movies all the times, movies like PK and Dhoom 3. Most of his movies are classics and feature in ‘prestigious’ IMDB list created and curated by Indian film fans. But that’s not where the greatness of Aamir Khan ends, Aamir Khan is a great humanitarian as well. He believes in the “Giving back to the society” philosophy and he gives back a lot. He raised the issue of dyslexia with his Taare Zameen pe and malpractices in Hindu Dharma through his “PK”.
But the feminist, socialist and rationalist inside Aamir Khan got a fresh lease when he hit the small screen with his Path Breaking “Satyamev Jayate”. Satyamev Jayate was a nice TV series. When other Bollywood greats like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar were doing time pass shows like Kaun Banega Karodpati, Das Ka Dum and Khatro ke Khilaadi etc., Aamir Khan did Satyamev Jayate. It was clear that Aamir Khan was genuinely concerned about social issues and all that.
Satyamev Jayate focused on sensitive social issues rampant in India. His team did meticulous research about the aforementioned topics. And every Sunday at 11AM, Aamir Khan talked about these issues at length. The show invariably ended with copious shedding of tears by Aamir himself amidst melodious tracks composed by his friend Ram Sampath.
Satyamev Jayate was a game changer of Indian TV. It was dubbed in several languages to ensure a pan Indian viewership. The show was simulcast on STAR World, STAR Utsav, STAR Pravah, STAR Jalsha, Asianet and STAR Vijay within the STAR Network and other channels including DD National and Eenadu TV. Besides India, the show aired in over 100 countries around the world. Satyamev Jayate was massive.
And the show opened to rave reviews. Aamir Khan Fans who generally lay low and are considered the true connoisseurs of cinema reiterated why Aamir is a true gem and all other actors are acting interns in front of him.
In the first season of Satyamev Jayate, Aamir Khan focused on the following topics:
- Female foeticide in India
- Child sexual abuse
- Dowry system in India
- Medical malpractice
- Love marriages and Honor killings in India
- Physical Disabilities
- Domestic Violence
- Pesticide poisoning and Organic farming
- Alcohol abuse
- Casteism and Untouchability
- Old age
- Water crisis and Rainwater harvesting
The second season of the show focused on the following topics:
- Rape in India
- State of Police Affairs in India
- Solid Waste Management
- Corruption
- Crimes and Elections
The third season of Satyamev Jayate focused on the following topics:
- Changing Lives with Sports
- Road accidents
- LGBT community
- Tuberculosis
- Mental Health
- Masculinity in Society
Alright! Let us cut to the chase. So we see Aamir Khan discussed a variety of subjects. He found time to discuss Casteism and Untouchability which are plaguing the Hindu Dharma and a subject as generic as Corruption in India which created lucrative careers for 2 bit activists, now part time CMs of half-states. Aamir Khan found time to discuss Masculinity in India because of course there lives a Khap Sarpanch inside every Indian male. He also found time to discuss Rape because India is the rape capital of the world despite having one of the lowest per 100,000 rape rates in the world.
(Source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics#Rape_statistics_by_country)
Wasn’t Leslie Udwin of BBC, trying to prove the same thing through her documentary?
Anyways, the point that I am trying to drive here is that the champion of women rights didn’t touch two topics at all. No prizes for guessing, I am talking about Triple Talaq and Polygamy in Muslims. Aamir Khan and his research team didn’t consider Triple Talaq and Polygamy to be real issues at all. At this point of time India is standing at the gates of a cultural renaissance where the regressive forces are completely opposed to amendment in their male-favoring laws, the modernists want to usher in an era of equality. But Aamir Khan ignored Triple Talaq and polygamy because self-retrospection needs courage and willpower, finding faults with others is easy.
Forget a dedicated show discussing Triple Talaq and Polygamy, As far as I know, Aamir didn’t even mention it once even as there is a raging debate about the Islamic Malpractices in India. There can two reasons behind this reluctance of Aamir Khan, either he doesn’t want to talk about Triple Talaq and Polygamy OR he is afraid to talk about Triple Talaq and Polygamy. So Aamir Khan is either a Charlatan or a Coward.