Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Mary Kaun?
One road that leads to the Mount Mary's Basilica in
Mumbai is blocked for common citizens, at a time when people across faiths go
to pay respects, being the birthday of Mother Mary, on whose memory the
Basilica is built. Reason as it is a road that passes side of the abode of a
cine star, Shaharukh Khan. At the same time when one enters the Church
compound, there is a stall selling DVDs explaining the history of the Basilica,
and a poster in that stall shows Salman Khan sharing his experience with the
Basilica.
So we have one Khan that
restricts entry to the Basilica and another Khan promoting the Basilica. What
an irony? Do we need a cine star to promote a religious Institution? When the
star may not be practicing his own religion, why do we need his comments on his
experience with the Basilica? It was understandable if he has expressed his
experience in some public domain, but his comments or views are not required
for a DVD that is promoted by a Church institution.
Products may need stars to
promote their goodies. That is beside the point many of the stars would not even
be using those products. It is the products that need the stars and not the
other way around. Stars just need the money. Not that stars don’t do noble,
social and charitable work, but that does not qualify them to stand testimony
to a religious institution, at least definitely not a Salman Khan. If the aim
was to promote religious harmony, there are thousands of people from other
faiths, who visit the Mount Mary's
Basilica, any ‘ordinary citizen’ from another faith could have been
portrayed, to show their love for Mother Mary. Do we need a star power for
that? It would have been more appropriate if Salman Khan had to wear a
medallion of Our Lady on his bracelet and flaunted that in his movies, than
some stupid stone he sports.
When did religious institutions
need cine stars to show how well known or renowned their Institution is? Cine
stars can attempt to appease any Gods for their selfish interest. So we have
stars visiting Dargah of Moinuddin
Chishti in Ajmer, before a movie of theirs being released, or visiting Siddhi
Vinayak temple and this the media laps it, and beams it on their channels of
print or television, for TRP ratings. Doubt any of these religious institutions
use these stars to promote their religious places. On the contrary I am a great
fan of Salman Khan. That does not mean his views on a Church would ‘Kick’ me to
be more oriented towards a religious place. Maybe his movies would keep me
‘Ready’ awaiting his next.
Some of the good things (read
selfish things to make money) is at least movies are now made on ‘real life
heroes’. It makes one feel patriotic and proud when movies are made on soldiers
fighting wars for a country. That is beside the point nothing is remembered
about the soldiers or the ‘real heroes’ on whom these movies were made on; but
the stars get remembered for the movie in which they featured as a ‘real life
hero’. It is a great tribute in India when sporting heroes who are forgotten
are remembered through celluloid, on a movie was made on them. So we had a
great movie made on Milka Singh, also known as the flying Sikh. Similarly a recent
movie made on life of Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, better known as Mary Kom.
So these ‘real life heroes’ may
need an actor to portray their achievements. Religious Institution don’t. A
world famous monument as the Mount Mary's
Basilica for that matter does not need ‘anyone’ to depict its
importance. At least an actor’s testimony is not required, especially someone
who fakes to ‘Being Human’ and his actions has been contrary. Unless someone has a question ‘Mary Kaun’?
(meaning who is Mary?) 
Comments:
<< Home
Yes we don't need a film star to promote a religious shrie. But and it's really a huge but... why take Salman to task. It's perfectly ok to feature him when he obviously has a personal experience to talk about. One needs to note that he's of a different faith and when viewed in a wider sense it dies help to promote religious tolerance.if anyone should be taken to task it is Shahrukh Khan. Utter arrigance and sheer disregard for devotees. Mind you he married hus wife in a Hindu ceremony! So where pray is his religious tolerance? He's a selfish twit!
# posted by 
: 11:09 PM
: 11:09 PM
Well said, Sunny.
we do not need a Khan to promote our mother, specially the most over-rated actor in India, Salman.
There are dozens of churches destroyed in India, no one talks about. But one Babri is still a hot topic in the country. We, christians, are over-tolerant. if there was a masjid in place of the Basilica, SRK would be standing at the gate to greet his fellow muslims.
Keep up your good writing.
rgds
Sebastian
we do not need a Khan to promote our mother, specially the most over-rated actor in India, Salman.
There are dozens of churches destroyed in India, no one talks about. But one Babri is still a hot topic in the country. We, christians, are over-tolerant. if there was a masjid in place of the Basilica, SRK would be standing at the gate to greet his fellow muslims.
Keep up your good writing.
rgds
Sebastian
# posted by : 11:40 AM
: 11:40 AM
I totally with this comment, Sunny. I dont see much ado with Salman sharing his experience, but it is unacceptable of Sharukh blocking the road and mumbai police budging to his star power.
Sebastian, destroying any place of worship is an unforgivable sin. We muslims still grieve the attack on Babri masjid because we still feel its pain. And if we are silent today tomorrow hundreds of other mosques will be targeted likewise! Even you shouldn't be silent onlookers when churches are violated. Its your responsibility. Speak up and we are here to support you.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]