What is all with the Shikara controversy? Why call for its boycott?

It’s likely a classic repeat of ‘Padmavat’ and Karni Sena controversy.

People protested the movie without even watching it. And then when they did watch it, they realized that the movie actually glorified their people. So, all those weeks of protests, yelling, threatening, and putting a bounty to hurt Deepika was for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

The latest Shikara controversy seems no different.

Only, for ‘Padmavat’ a small group of people went hype – for ‘Shikara’ a large group, that wears its jingoist badge with pride and has limited knowledge of Kashimiri pandit exodus, is on the boils now.

(Courtesy: Livemint)

‘Shikara’ is set to release on 7th February 2020. The movie is based on Kashmiri pandit exodus from Kashmir, which actually happened in 1989-1990. The trailed was released on 7th January. If you haven’t seen it, check it out:

Now, if you know anything about the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, it’s undeniable that what happened was heinous, unforgivable and demands every bit of strong action against the terrorists who forced lakhs of Hindus to flee from their homes. These Kashmiris became “refugees” in their own country.

But it has been 30 years since then. What do you expect those affected should do now? Likely, move on and live in the present to heal their wounds and enjoy life. Makes sense, right? And that’s exactly what the director of Shikara, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, said.

He said that the movie is a way of saying that people now need to move on after three decades. He called the movie as a mean of “healing” and a “fight between two friends”.

Of course, this was enough to ticker the outrage culture that we live in now.

Twitter users – most of them with limited knowledge of the different socio-political dynamics of Kashmiri Pandit exodus, most of who weren’t even born back then, most of who were cozying in their respective homes when the terrorist attack actually happened in Kashmir – started the boycott trend for Shikara.

It wasn’t surprising.

It won’t be surprising that this outrage grows as the movie inches to its release date.

It won’t be surprising that right-wing politicians too jump in the Shikara controversy, rallying behind the boycott.

(Courtesy: India Today)

Given most of the people now sees everything (EVERYTHING!!) with the Hindu-Muslim spectacles, this response – which includes not just a cry for boycott but also a lot of abuses for the filmmakers and everyone in it – was quite expected.

After all, we’ve been trained for 6 years now to do Hindu-Muslim in every topic courtesy of Godi media, it only made sense that the hyper-nationalist goons create a furor again.

After all, in recent times, these are the people who have been exposed and acclimatized to movies around hyper-nationalism that sell mass propaganda – albeit subtly – they were/are bound to feel discomfort to see a movie that doesn’t fit their jingoistic narratives.

Let’s just hope the ‘Padmavat’ controversy isn’t repeated again. It will give media another chance to dodge the issues that actually matter and jump on an irrelevant entertainment-purposed movie.

NRC, NPR, unemployment, low GDP, farmers, banking system, data protection law, roads, clean water… There are just too many things to discuss and care about. Let’s not get hooked to a movie again, forgetting the pain that millions of Indians are going through at present every day.