Initially marked to be shelved, owing to the legal battles between former producers Balaji Motion Pictures and KriArj entertainment, ‘Kedarnath’ was rescued in time by popular producer Ronnie Screwvala, whose new production company, RSVP Pictures has decided to distribute and produce the movie.
Directed by ‘Rock On!’ and ‘Kai Po Che!’ fame Abhishek Kapoor, the movie stars actors Sushant Singh Rajput, Nitish Bhardwaj among others and is the debut movie of actress Sara Ali Khan. Centered around the devastating floods that rocked the Chaar Dham pilgrimage site in Uttarakhand, including the center of attraction i.e the Kedarnath Temple. This movie is a romantic take on the calamity and attempts to emphasize the message, as evident on the film poster, ‘Love is a Pilgrimage’.
As of now, despite its release date is only a week after the much awaited sequel to ‘Robot’, i.e. ‘2.0’ , Kedarnath teaser has generated enough buzz of its own. In barely a day, it garnered more than 9 million views on YouTube alone, with more than 150000 likes and counting.
Given how shoddy the VFX of ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ looked, despite millions pooled into the making of the movie, the VFX here certainly look a tad better. The background score is also equally engaging and apparently from all the actors shown in the teaser, Sara Ali Khan has stood out with her expressions.
However, there are a few things that we are not able to understand about the movie, as shown in the teaser :
The clichéd Bollywood Formula :
If there is one thing that elite Bollywood seriously needs to get over with, it is their penchant to plagiarize anything and everything, apart from stuffing everything with romance of course. Kedarnath is no exception either, as it is a love story, centered around the disaster. From the looks of it, it is clearly evident that Abhishek Kapoor is trying his hand at creating something on the lines of ‘Titanic’. Is the love angle in the Kedarnath tragedy really that necessary?
The Hindu Muslim Angle :
Another thing that we haven’t been able to understand is the continuous sermon of pseudo secularism, as evident in the teaser of this movie. Why is it so necessary to show a love story between a Hindu pilgrim girl and a Muslim pitthoo [carrier]? Do good people don’t exist in other communities? Even if the director doesn’t aim to promote the notorious trend of Love Jihad, this angle was portrayed in a really bad taste and at a wrong time.
We’re not blind to Bollywood’s continuous attempts to downplay one community in order to glorify another, but isn’t this too much? Would the director have lost millions if he portrayed a romantic tale, if at all, between a pilgrim and / or a security guard, or even a flower / book seller present at the pilgrimage site, who is not necessarily Hindu, but not compulsorily a Muslim either?
Possible Hinduphobia :
They say, ‘Do Not Judge a Book by This Cover’. However, thanks to our bitter experience with incidents like Kathua case and movies like ‘PK’, ‘Mulk’ etc, we can’t help but think if ‘Kedarnath’ is just another case study on the Hinduphobic elite Bollywood and how they wish to represent Kedarnath tragedy as another proof, that the so called Hindu-Gods will never come to the rescue of their devotees in case of a calamity.
If this were not the case, what was the need to post such tweets right after the release of Kedarnath teaser:-
#KedarnathTeaser: It Looks @itsSSR and @iSaraAliKhan's Love Wins Against the Angry Floods of #Kedarnath Great Visuals https://t.co/fV7qZlnMMy pic.twitter.com/CV9psfPBqs
— BollywoodFarm (@bollywoodfarm) October 30, 2018
No tragedy, no wrath of nature, no act of God can defeat the power of love! Presenting the official #KedarnathPoster, teaser out at 12 noon @itsSSR #SaraAliKhan @RSVPMovies @RonnieScrewvala @gitspictures @pragyadav_ @ZeeMusicCompany #Kedarnath #jaibholenath 🙏 pic.twitter.com/lgdgIwC2db
— Abhishek Kapoor (@Abhishekapoor) October 29, 2018
Lust in Calamity :
However, one of the most confusing, as well as irritating aspects of this teaser, are the scenes, where the lead couple Sushant and Sara find time to get intimate, even as calamity loomed large. Is being intimate this necessary? Unfortunately, what is being passed off as love, as purported in this teaser, is nothing but lust and ironically, such actions are considered as ‘progressive’ and ‘essential for mankind’s progress’ by left liberals. Do the makers see the Indian audience to be that dumb?
Interestingly, the brains behind this movie are no innocent souls either. While Abhishek Kapoor, the director, is a known offender, having demonized Hindus earlier in his much talked about movie ‘Kai Po Che’, adapted from Chetan Bhagat’s book ‘The 3 Mistakes of My Life!’, his co writer of the movie, Kanika Dhillon, is the same woman who had written the movie ‘Manmarziyaan’, including the controversial scenes that were offensive to the Sikh community.
This compels one to think if ‘Kedarnath’ was an innocent mistake, or a deliberate blunder, intentionally made to provoke Hindu sentiments. The true picture would come out only when the movie is actually released on 7 December.
