Movie Padmavati : Let's hope it is not counterfeit product / brand imitation
Movie Padmavati : Let's hope it is not counterfeit product / brand imitation
I am talking about 1980's, when weekly market used to be set up in Dharwad. Villagers from all around used to flock to the city for buying their essentials. Weekly wages used to be paid on Mondays and half working day/holiday declared to laborers to enable them to buy things. Since our printing press was in the middle of the market, looking at different products was a kind of good time pass.
My uncles at retail stationary marts used to show me real product and Counterfeit products And then ask to identify the original - Narma soap powder (counterfeit of then popular Nirma washing powder), Colgete (for Colgate), Nlppo batteries (Nippo batteries) etc., which used to be available at much cheaper price than the real ones. Due to my primary education in mother tongue Kannada, I wasnt familiar with English alphabet and made mistakes many times in differentiating. Nevertheless, i enjoyed this game, as my observation capacity for details used to be put to test. Believe me, there used to be so many such products, often with better packaging quality or may be even better product quality at lesser price. At the end of the day, it is cheating - you are cheating the consumer into believing that he is buying a genuine branded product; you are cheating your fellow producer, whose brand name you are capitalizing; most of the times you are selling a sub-standard product and making profit for yourself.
If you think, counterfeit products are made to fool "dumb" villagers, kindly google to find the menace of counterfeit products in India. There are counterfeit chocolates for kids (Games vs Gems), medicines and even Intel Flash Chips :|
Our Kanndadiga, G V Aiyer, produced a beautiful movie on Swami Vivekananda in 1998. Mithun Chakraborty went on to receive National Award for best supporting Actor in the role of Sri Ramakrishna. However, the movie ran into controversy and I was informed that movie was screened for Swami Harshanandaji, the president of Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore to seek his opinion. After watching the movie, I wondered, what was controversial, given I liked the movie and was quite familiar with life of Swamiji. In the life of Swami Vivekananda, there is a very heart touching event at Khetri Maharaj's court. A musical rendition is arranged and Swami Vivekananda refuses to participating in it, when he learns that singer is from a low-background. The singer is greatly disappointed and sings with great devotion "Prabhu mere avaguna chita na dharo", a melodious bhajan by Surdas. Swami realises his mistake, goes to the court and apologises to the singer devotee. In the movie, it is Jayaprada, 'dancing' to this Bhajan. Is it a distortion of facts (Singer replaced by Dancer, King organising a dance event, dances being arranged for monks rather than Bhajans ...) or artistic freedom or giving a 'commercial' touch to the biopic? G V Aiyer is very respected movie maker and produced movies in Sanskrit and on 3 acharyas!
[Prabhu Mere Avaguna Chita Na Dharo]
Bhyrappa dealt with the topic of historical truths vs artistic freedom in his articles published in Vijaya Karnataka in October 2006. These articles, can be considered as the literary master pieces that made learned readers of Kannada to deeply introspect.
Sanjay Khan's TV serial on Tipu, may be a piece of art - but a counterfeit, cheating viewers/history/truth. Girish Karnad's drama on Tughalaq may be success on stage, but a counterfeit. If a doctor says, i have a counterfeit degree but can do great operations, would you be ready to risk the life of your parents? Would you be ok, if a pharmacist sold counterfeit medicine for your sick kid? While there can be many views on historical events, lets not distort the recorded facts in the name of "artistic freedom".
When you make a movie on Mahasati Padmini, please base it on available records and legends. Do make such movies, we need to be aware of history, so that we learn from our mistakes. If details are not available, may be, you can utilise artistic freedom after research (what were the designs of jewels, what food they ate, what kind of language constructs they used? What might have transpired between the family members before Jauhar?). Dont distort the facts and dont make fanciful assumptions.
(Courtesy: Wikipedia)
Or, make a movie on bravery and Jauhar - after all, so many happened in kingdoms of Rajasthan - Change the Name of Characters. Deepika/Ranveer/Shahid/Sanjay are all good names that can be used for characters!! Let's avoid counterfeit products
Jai Har! Jai Har!!
(Courtesy: Wikipedia)
I am talking about 1980's, when weekly market used to be set up in Dharwad. Villagers from all around used to flock to the city for buying their essentials. Weekly wages used to be paid on Mondays and half working day/holiday declared to laborers to enable them to buy things. Since our printing press was in the middle of the market, looking at different products was a kind of good time pass.
(Brand Imitation,
Counterfeiting and
Consumers : D Y Chacharkar)
My uncles at retail stationary marts used to show me real product and Counterfeit products And then ask to identify the original - Narma soap powder (counterfeit of then popular Nirma washing powder), Colgete (for Colgate), Nlppo batteries (Nippo batteries) etc., which used to be available at much cheaper price than the real ones. Due to my primary education in mother tongue Kannada, I wasnt familiar with English alphabet and made mistakes many times in differentiating. Nevertheless, i enjoyed this game, as my observation capacity for details used to be put to test. Believe me, there used to be so many such products, often with better packaging quality or may be even better product quality at lesser price. At the end of the day, it is cheating - you are cheating the consumer into believing that he is buying a genuine branded product; you are cheating your fellow producer, whose brand name you are capitalizing; most of the times you are selling a sub-standard product and making profit for yourself.
If you think, counterfeit products are made to fool "dumb" villagers, kindly google to find the menace of counterfeit products in India. There are counterfeit chocolates for kids (Games vs Gems), medicines and even Intel Flash Chips :|
Our Kanndadiga, G V Aiyer, produced a beautiful movie on Swami Vivekananda in 1998. Mithun Chakraborty went on to receive National Award for best supporting Actor in the role of Sri Ramakrishna. However, the movie ran into controversy and I was informed that movie was screened for Swami Harshanandaji, the president of Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore to seek his opinion. After watching the movie, I wondered, what was controversial, given I liked the movie and was quite familiar with life of Swamiji. In the life of Swami Vivekananda, there is a very heart touching event at Khetri Maharaj's court. A musical rendition is arranged and Swami Vivekananda refuses to participating in it, when he learns that singer is from a low-background. The singer is greatly disappointed and sings with great devotion "Prabhu mere avaguna chita na dharo", a melodious bhajan by Surdas. Swami realises his mistake, goes to the court and apologises to the singer devotee. In the movie, it is Jayaprada, 'dancing' to this Bhajan. Is it a distortion of facts (Singer replaced by Dancer, King organising a dance event, dances being arranged for monks rather than Bhajans ...) or artistic freedom or giving a 'commercial' touch to the biopic? G V Aiyer is very respected movie maker and produced movies in Sanskrit and on 3 acharyas!
[Prabhu Mere Avaguna Chita Na Dharo]
Bhyrappa dealt with the topic of historical truths vs artistic freedom in his articles published in Vijaya Karnataka in October 2006. These articles, can be considered as the literary master pieces that made learned readers of Kannada to deeply introspect.
Sanjay Khan's TV serial on Tipu, may be a piece of art - but a counterfeit, cheating viewers/history/truth. Girish Karnad's drama on Tughalaq may be success on stage, but a counterfeit. If a doctor says, i have a counterfeit degree but can do great operations, would you be ready to risk the life of your parents? Would you be ok, if a pharmacist sold counterfeit medicine for your sick kid? While there can be many views on historical events, lets not distort the recorded facts in the name of "artistic freedom".
When you make a movie on Mahasati Padmini, please base it on available records and legends. Do make such movies, we need to be aware of history, so that we learn from our mistakes. If details are not available, may be, you can utilise artistic freedom after research (what were the designs of jewels, what food they ate, what kind of language constructs they used? What might have transpired between the family members before Jauhar?). Dont distort the facts and dont make fanciful assumptions.
Or, make a movie on bravery and Jauhar - after all, so many happened in kingdoms of Rajasthan - Change the Name of Characters. Deepika/Ranveer/Shahid/Sanjay are all good names that can be used for characters!! Let's avoid counterfeit products
Jai Har! Jai Har!!
posted by Ramashray at 7:34 AM
3 Comments:
The example of GV Iyyer movie you write about is interesting. I saw that song. The song in the movie clearly implies that Swami Vivek never saw her dance. He only listened to the song sitting somewhere outside while the king probably enjoyed her dance. Of course, the audience has no choice but to watch her dance.
Now there can be several types of audience:
1) Those who believe that she did not dance but a) it doesn't bother them to see the dance b) it bothers them to see her dance because they went to the movie to feel devoted about SV
2) Those who are beguiled into believing that she danced. And they themselves enjoyed (or did not enjoy) the dance themselves based on their liking (or disliking) of Jayaprada and that sort of dancing along with that sort of singing in such a setup. Further, they were stupid enough to create in their minds a certain notion about what type of a person SV was, to the utter dismay of the disciples and the protectors of the "true" heritage of SV.
3) Those who are aware that they are not watching a documentary about SV or reading a historically accurate book about him but are watching a movie about him for intellectual entertainment. they don't much care about whether the specific incidents happened or not. They know that the kind of truths and falsehoods movies portray are quite different from the kind of truths and falsehoods historians promulgate.
Bhyrappa's portrayal, of historical characters in Sartha and Avarana, is maybe to the liking of your-side people, but I see elements of hagiography in his portrayal of Shankara in Sartha.
By the way, according to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rani_Padmini, there is nothing real about the story Padmavat and the very character Rani Padmini.
So what is even the contention?
Also, another question in this context: Do you consider Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. as history?
Irrespective of that, do your-side people approve of Ramayana Darshanam and Gadugina Bharata?
Swarna, thanks for your feedback.
In the context of SV, contemporary documents record it as singing performance. Movie, converted it into dance performance. Now, that's taken as historical truth. See today's Vijayavani. When movie was being opposed due to several depictions that hurt Bengalis, Harshanandaji took the lead, provided his feedback n ensured movie was released without any alterations. He ensured that objections were recorded n discussed with GV aiyer.
Bhyrappa's Saartha, character of Shankara is as per his historical biography Shankara-digvijaya by Madhava.
His portrayal of Mahabharata Parva needs consideration. But, like all our Mahabharata poets, he has followed Vyasa - wrote that it is adaption.
My only appeal is, let's not make counterfeit.
I see no point why some people are protesting against the release of this movie. It is just for entertainment. The movie story won't be there in our school's textbooks. You are adult and you know what the truth of real Padmavati, the movie is merely made to entertain you.
Post a Comment
<< Home