Would OMG have dared call the sacred stone in Kaaba 'Ek Kaala Pathar'

Published: Wednesday, Oct 17,2012, 14:06 IST
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piece of art, the movie OMG, Oh My God, paresh rawal, akshay kumar, akki, sri sri, ramdev,

A great piece of art needs a great mind and a great heart behind it. While it needs to provoke to gain attention, the work itself needs to have a universal appeal to bring greatness to itself! Sadly, the movie 'OMG - Oh My God' fails abysmally on these accounts.

It lacks the philosophical depth or the technicality of The Matrix or Inception (they praise Hindu philosophy); or the enigma, sophistication and reverence of the Da Vinci Code. The plot and the message are convoluted and steeped in rhetoric.
Trivializing festive celebrations of Janmashtami and pilgrimages to Tirupati and Siddhi Vinayak temples; and suggesting we discard symbols and break statues of Hindu Gods come across as shallow grievances.
 
Further, in an era where saints like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who is the founder member of the largest post-Independence Civil Rights movement of India ‘India Against Corruption’ and his courses teach that Service to Mankind is one of the 4 key ingredients that are needed for Moksha; in an era where Baba Ramdev sings only Patriotic songs in his Yoga shivirs and unlike the Taliban, Mata Amritanandamayi is making world records lovingly hugging people, the movie seems grossly anachronistic and unjustifiable! Decrying donations to these humanitarian organizations and their ashrams is crazy!

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The messages of peaceful co-existence of the above mentioned saints and also of the saints of the last century, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananada, Swami Yogananda is belittled in this petty movie.

A good film is scripted by people that are authorities on their topic. Sadly the film has no such grounding. It lacks severely in its understanding of Hinduism. The biased depiction of Hindu priests and saints is shocking. They are depicted as shallow and unable to defend Hindu beliefs.

Even worse, attempts are made to cover up the weakness in the script by trying to spoof popular spiritualists and using it as propaganda for the launch of the movie. This is clearly counter-productive especially since the debates in the courtroom are grossly ineffectual and insipid.

Indian spiritual history is one of the greatest histories that remains untold in the classrooms of its schools yet is gaining more and more importance on the global stage. This fear is driving vested interests into undermining its greatness using the usual anti-Hindu rhetoric.

The fact that a mainstream Indian film can be vitriolic about Hinduism and get away with it shows the tolerance and goodness of its culture. Hinduism survived Buddhism without waging a war. It survived the Muslim invaders despite being abandoned by its warriors. In post-independence India Hinduism is in the Renaissance mode and sadly this movie has missed out on that mood!

The film selectively picks and chooses its battles instead of boldly confronting issues. Thus, while it beats up the Sufis, it does nothing to counter the poison being spread by the idol haters and fanatic Wahhabi Muslims. It condemns idolatry of the Hindus and the worship of Sufi prophets' shrines but does not understand the Universal message of tolerance of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, “as many ideas, that many paths to the Lord”!

It questions Hindus offering milk on a Shivling but stays silent on the violence being spread in the name of God by the so called Monotheist, yet fanatic Muslims and Christians! It does not know that Hinduism is Monotheist as well. In Gita Sri Krishna says, “Whichever form they pray to, all the prayers still reach me.”

The film calls a Shivling a stone in a derogatory tone but would it have
dared call the sacred stone in Kaaba in a similar tone!

In the words of the Hindu basher Mark Tully,

“I am sometimes flabbergasted at the fact that Indians... love me so much, considering... I ran down the 850 million Hindus of this country... I have repented today: I do profoundly believe that India needs to be able to say with pride, ‘Yes, our civilization has a Hindu base to it...’ I believe that Hinduism may actually prove to be the religion of this millennium, because it can adapt itself to change.”
'OMG - Oh My God' is one of those forgettable movies that barely cause a ripple before sinking into oblivion. Paresh Rawal is a good actor and carries the movie on his lonely shoulders albeit more for commercial reasons rather than any intellectual or moral conviction.i

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