By Hamza Shafique (Instagram / Facebook)
As a Muslim from Indian subcontinent I feel this idea that Hindus being the real people of the land and Muslims being the foreign invaders is flying very high these days in India which has also reached the Bollywood movies these days and is very evident. To the extent that we see Marathas, Sikhs, Rajputs being the national heroes while Mughals, Nizams and Nawabs who actually brought prosperity unity to India are now standing in the same line as British colonizers who left country divided and broke. What this does is, strips Muslim of their Identity as people of this land and this is not pleasant being a Muslim. As Ashutosh’s Jodha Akbar tried hard to make this great Indian king, Indian so I thought this one would be different. But sadly no, you give us a victory song which talks about having Shiv in heart and make the Muslims in Maratha Army sing and dance to it with similar conviction as if they were Hindus reflecting the idea that to be a patriotic Indian you need to be a Hindu - something I really didn’t like. I will never expect Hindus in Mughal army to be shown saying Takbeer then why Har Har Mahadev is the slogan here when Peshwa Army was meant to represent the diversity of India. But again, we desi tend to take movies way to seriously, it's still a medium of entertainment and should be reviewed as an entertainer. So here is my review after keeping aside the sentiments and distortion of historical facts.
As a Muslim from Indian subcontinent I feel this idea that Hindus being the real people of the land and Muslims being the foreign invaders is flying very high these days in India which has also reached the Bollywood movies these days and is very evident. To the extent that we see Marathas, Sikhs, Rajputs being the national heroes while Mughals, Nizams and Nawabs who actually brought prosperity unity to India are now standing in the same line as British colonizers who left country divided and broke. What this does is, strips Muslim of their Identity as people of this land and this is not pleasant being a Muslim. As Ashutosh’s Jodha Akbar tried hard to make this great Indian king, Indian so I thought this one would be different. But sadly no, you give us a victory song which talks about having Shiv in heart and make the Muslims in Maratha Army sing and dance to it with similar conviction as if they were Hindus reflecting the idea that to be a patriotic Indian you need to be a Hindu - something I really didn’t like. I will never expect Hindus in Mughal army to be shown saying Takbeer then why Har Har Mahadev is the slogan here when Peshwa Army was meant to represent the diversity of India. But again, we desi tend to take movies way to seriously, it's still a medium of entertainment and should be reviewed as an entertainer. So here is my review after keeping aside the sentiments and distortion of historical facts.
