This might make me the newest conspiracy theorist on the block, but something about the timing of the entire Shah Rukh Khan-Shiv Sena brouhaha leaves me deeply suspicious.
On the off chance the Shiv Sena wasn't in on the conspiracy (and deep down I don't believe that is the case), it has played right into a crafty Khan's hands by raising a stink over his willingness to include Pakistani players in his floundering cricket squad. All the resultant jingoistic chest-thumping from either side might just turn out to be the biggest boon for the actor's just-released My Name is Khan. It's been better publicity than Khan or Dharma Production's millions could ever buy. Suddenly SRK has been virtually elevated to sainthood and is being celebrated as patriotism's newest mascot.
By rising to the bait and pledging to disrupt the film's screening, the Shiv Sena has made millions overly keen to watch My Name is Khan. While those millions surely have a huge number of die-hard SRK fans, I'm sure they also include people who would otherwise probably have given the film a miss.
Now why would a political party do that? What has it gained except bad press? The Shiv Sena seems to be fast losing relevance in the political arena. It seems now to be concentrating on screaming itself hoarse over some regionally chauvinistic cause or the other, generally giving the PR advantage to the opposing side. It must be gaining from this somehow. Why else would it do this so consistently? What's in it for the party? Bears thinking, doesn't it?
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I wouldn't be surprised if Bal Thackeray was bribed by SRK & KJ with a carton of single malt...Remember how Rebecca Marks of Enron got stuff done by presenting him with an original cartoon by Disney?
ReplyDeleteMy yenta friends from the condo who went for MNIK, didn't like it...
ReplyDeleteIt certainly smacks of hand-in-glove. I know of a case when the same brouhaha was kicked up over the lack of quality of a Bengali movie.The two antagonists were two of the most celebrated directors. In the end it was discovered that one of them came to the rescue of the other after initial box-office failure.The movie became a hit thereafter. I saw it. It was very good.
ReplyDeleteThe film in question is apparently more pedestrian than pedestrian gets. They wouldn't have managed to pull in the crowds without all this drama outside the theatres. I think SRK was intimidated by the phenomenal success of the other Khan's most recent release.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's a lot in it for Shiv Sena actually. Chauvinist politics works in very different ways.
ReplyDeleteWhat with the Mumbai blasts and the recent Pune blasts, anger and outrage against terrorism is on a high and for a lot of people, terrorism is synonymous to Pakistan (I oppose this virulently by the way) so by objecting to Pakistan at all levels, Shiv Sena shows its commitment to this school of thought. Ofcourse this sounds preposterous to you but by now, after a year of reading ABVP posters and pamphlets, this is my theory.
Fascist politics also sounded preposterous before the Great Depression allowed it a chance to rise into the mainstream but every ideology needs to be expressed in silly ways in its struggle to make use of every opportunity to manifest itself.
About the press, the Shiv Sena doesn't worry much about the NDTV or The Times. It has its own media to spread propaganda and they can always use arguments like "Uff! These elitist magazines don't understand these things. They just want to become 'terrorist ke dalal' through minority appeasement. They are weak. We must be strong." etc etc.
No Ruch, the Marathi readership isn't that gullible. The SS (kinda' ominous, the abbreviation!) is finding fewer and fewer takers for its brand of hatred. Which is why it is resorting to such desperate measures, acting as the self-appointed gatekeepers of Mumbai. Hardly anyone's listening any more, which is fantastic.
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