Padmavat- The modern battle

Good evening, my dear readers. How are all of you doing? I hope all of you are doing well.

I’m sure all of you must have been following the newspapers quite diligently every morning, right? For those of you who are or had not been doing the same, I would like to discuss a small matter with you. A matter which had been doing its fair share of rounds in our country’s newspapers until quite recently.  Well, coming to the issue at hand, the matter is that of the slew of protests which had been taking place against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s recently released magnum opus, Padmavat, a film about the 14^th century kingdom of Maharaja Rawal Singh of Mewar, Chittor in Rajasthan and his breathtakingly beautiful queen, Rani Padmini, whose beauty was one of the reasons behind the invasion of Alauddin Khilji as mentioned in the 16^th century poem of the same name by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi.

The reason behind the protests against the film were that it allegedly portrayed the Rajputs in a poor light, though film goers who had seen the film and others such the news anchors of various channels (who had seen the film prior  to its release ) had declared quite unambiguously that contrary to the claims against it, the film instead showcased the valor and the might of the Rajputs who bravely fought against the incoming army of Turkish ruler Alauddin Khilji  and died like true Rajputs, by defending Chittorgarh to their last breath after Maharaja Rawal perished owing to a duel with Maharaja Devrapal , who ruled the neighboring kingdom and who had proposed marriage to Queen Padmini ,which was the cause of the duel between Maharaja Rawal and Maharaja Devrapal.

Now, coming to the protests, they were quite horrific in nature, one must admit. It was still acceptable, when they had been protesting peacefully and merely raising slogans. But, as with most such similar movements in our country, the protests soon morphed into an ugly phenomenon with protestors targeting innocent school children and torching cinema halls which were slated to release the films. Also, in an irascible display of mob might, they even stopped a train in Gurgaon. The innocent school children in question belonged to the GD Goenka World School who, on that fateful day had been returning home from their school. The children ranged from small kids starting from 7 years old to young adults who were 17 or 18 years old(that is, children from class 2 to class 12) . On their way home, their peaceful journey was suddenly interrupted by protestors who smashed the windows of the bus, forcing the scared children to take cover under the seats of the bus, with some of them even crying copiously owing to the threat they were in. Prior to the attack on the school bus, the protestors had torched a Haryana Roadway bus. It is high time our country stopped such regressive people from ruining its image. Now, if there is one thing I have to say to all of you who protested, it is that what you did was an extreme act of cowardice (since you attacked innocent school children), it is that there is a rather fundamental law of nature and indeed, the universe , that everything, and everyone has a finite existence. Similarly, even empires, no matter how great they may be, have to come to an end one day or the other. Indeed, creation and destruction are the two things which have shaped the universe for centuries and beyong measurable time.

So, if the reasons behind your protests had been that the Rajputs were defeated by Alauddin Khilji in 1303 AD, then I’m sorry to say that your protests were needless. For, going by that logic, you should also have protested against the release of the movie Jodhaa Akbar(2008) which, despite not displaying that particular campaign, still chronicled the life of Shahenshah Akbar, who invaded, besieged and defeated Chittorgarh  during the siege which lasted for 4 months(20^th October 1567-23^rd February 1568) . After all, historically and technically, it was a defeat of the Rajputs wasn’t it, wasn’t it? And yet, even in that ill-fated battle for the Rajputs, they went down fighting till their last man, and that (and this is slightly painful, I admit, even to only think of) too after their womenfolk had self immolated themselves. And what in the next event or series of events that took place after that? As history recounts, the next step that Akbar did take was to extend a hand of friendship towards the Rajputs as he had realized that such brave warriors would make better allies than foes.

The point I am trying to make is that your protests were needless and that you should have withdrawn your protests much earlier than you actually did as you had been protesting something that took   place 715 years ago (meaning I am referring to Khilji’s attack in 1303 AD), which means that none of you can change what happened, whether you all like it or not. And lastly, I would like to thank you all for finally withdrawing your protests and allowing the film to run its course at the theatres.

Well, that is all, my dear friends. Hope you have a great time ahead. Stay tuned to my blog for further such updates!