Why Muslims need a Bajrangi too
A movie starring Salman Khan is expected to be a blockbuster. But Bajrangi Bhaijan is one step forward. More than being a Rs 500 crore grosser, the movie is an attempt to spread the message of love, compassion and commitment.
An Indian man with a magnanimous zeal helps a cute, mute girl from Pakistan return home. The movie, which continues its victory march at the box office, signifies what being Bajrangi is.
The emotional climax signals that being a follower of lords Hanuman and Ram is more about winning the hearts of people than wars. Salman portrayed Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi, an erstwhile RSS member who upheld this mantra till the end.
His illegal mission to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, cuddling a six-year-old girl, explains how a man good at heart wins hearts en route. Bajrangi is a disciplinarian, who despite being religiously a vegetarian isn’t allergic to others being non-vegetarian.
A true Bajringi is unlike Babu Bajrangi, the ugly face of the 2002 Gujarat riots. But then if for over a decade Babu Bajrangi has been condemned as the face of “Hindu extremism”, Islamic terror, represented by people like Tiger Memon and Ajmal Kasab who dragged Mumbai into carnage twice in two decades, remains the more dreaded. Religious zealots should be the exceptions in a community, but they often decide general perceptions.
The Bajrangi Bhaijan fever, however, seems to be changing this outlook. Media reports frequently highlight inspirations from the movie. Last week, the Punjab Police escorted a lost child to her Mohali home.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, taking a cue from the film, police from SAS Nagar reunited a four-year-old lost girl with her family though no information was available of their whereabouts.
The assistant sub-inspector, Dilbagh Singh, along with a constable, spent around five hours roaming around the city in search of the little girl’s house as she was unaware of the place she belonged to and also the identity of her parents. The report stated that after about five hours, as they were crossing by a school in a Mohali village, some students identified her. Finally, this brought an end to the search operation and little "munni" was taken to her home safe and sound.
Reel-life characters are producing real-life heroes. But this reflects only one side of the coin. Though Asaduddin Owaisi may strongly disagree, Muslims too need a similar movie for their transformation: May be, Jihadi Bhaijan.
This is because polarisation has been on the rise. A latest report released by the ministry of home affairs has shown that communal violence has risen by nearly 30 per cent in the first half of 2015 alone, with the country witnessing 330 riots so far.
Amid such polarisation, Bajrangi Bhaijan looks like an emotional bond, strong enough to make everyone, irrespective of religious ideologies, celebrate Jai Shri Ram!