One of the most controversial episodes in Indian history has been without any doubt the movement to reclaim the Ram Janmbhoomi complex in Ayodhya, where devoted Sanatanis wish to build a grand temple complex for their beloved Shri Ram.
Ever since the encroachment of Babri Masjid had been pulled down by enthusiastic karsewaks in 1992, the Ram Janmbhoomi movement has been a hot potato, covered by almost all sections in literature from print journalism to even depictions on silver screen.
Into this scenario has stepped in controversial Ram Janmbhoomi advocate and Shia Muslim leader Waseem Rizvi, who has produced and written a movie ‘Ram Janmbhoomi’, which covers the entire Ram Janmbhoomi movement that was the talk of the town around the nation during the early 90s. As he launched the trailer in a press conference at Lucknow, he spoke about the movie, clarifying as follows, “…….We haven’t targeted a specific community or disrespected the sentiments of any religion in this movie. Our attack is towards the political opportunists who are delaying this issue for their own benefit….’
So what’s special about this movie? Unlike his far more famous predecessors in Bollywood, who covered the Ram Janmbhoomi movement in a rather politically correct way with loads of minority appeasement, Waseem Rizvi has laid it threadbare. Not only has he criticized the political vultures who have intentionally delayed, he has also attempted a bold attack on the likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had presided over a brutal massacre of karsewaks proceeding towards Ayodhya in early 1990.
This is completely unlike the mockery of the sentiments of the Sanatanis that our Bollywood is well notorious for. From the minority appeasement by the character Wasiullah Khan in Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, to mocking the making of Ram Mandir in ‘PK’, to showing the demolition as an evil in ‘Mausam’ and ‘Sacred Games’, Bollywood has hardly ever portrayed the issue in a fair and non biased manner. But not ‘Ram Janmbhoomi’, which going by the trailer of the film, looks like that rare movie with no room for appeasement or political correctness.
In ‘Ram Janmbhoomi’ movie, Waseem Rizvi has hit two birds with a single stone. Not only has he attacked the people practicing minority appeasement and political opportunism, he has also castigated the hardened Islamist radicals, who support atrocious evils like Nikah Halala and Triple Talaq. Unfortunately, there are no big names in this movie, save for character artistes Manoj Joshi and Govind Namdeo. This is not completely unexpected though, owing to the honesty of the movie plot.
To be honest, it is extremely heartening to see that even if independently, at least efforts have been taken up to portray a sensitive issue without adulterating it with whitewashing of specific communities and excessive minority appeasement and political correctness. It is a rather welcoming move on the part of Waseem Rizvi and we do expect that the stellar brigade in Bollywood takes a leaf out of this project when dealing with future projects on such sensitive issues.