Respected Mr. Bachchan,
I hope this letter will attain you thru social media and can discover you in a great well being, Mr Amitabh Bachchan. I would like to increase my gratitude to you for including one extra purpose to really feel proud as an Indian. You are not solely an artist however additionally an inspiration to life. Your tweets after profitable a cricket match, your humbleness in entrance of different celebrities, your interplay with youngsters on the KBC set, your feelings after listening to tales of others in KBC, your gratefulness to Yash Chopra, Balasaheb, Dhirubhai Ambani or JRD Tata make your life a lesson for all of us and put you in a sphere the place no different personalities from Indian cinema can attain within the close to future.
Your speech from 2012 to 2015 at Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) shocked many people to assume the way you managed to quote such robust historic references to attract a significant conclusion about Kolkata’s affect on Indian cinema; certainly, your speech mirrored a small-scale thesis on Kolkata’s tradition. During the inauguration of KIFF this yr, you stated “questions have been raised on civil liberty and freedom of expression”. I’d like to add a few extra examples to your concern to make this problem extra real looking.
It is meaningless to state that cinema is not only a medium to entertain individuals; however, historically it principally tells the story of life. Our era could not really feel the brutality of the holocaust if Schindler’s List, The Boys within the Stripped Pajamas, and The final days wouldn’t have made. All these films delivered a silent justice to the Jewish individuals who suffered in the previous. When we look again to the historical past of our nation, we had to endure horribly as a result of division of the land. With full respect to all, we should settle for the truth that Bengali Hindus in Bengal, Sikhs in Punjab, Buddhists and Hindus in Jammu-Kashmir have been confronted with essentially the most devastating massacre for survival. How many movies have we made on this subject, Sir? Extending this historic connection, Kashmiri Hindus confronted much more cruelty later after they grew to become refugees of their personal nation. Nobody from Bollywood expressed their concern on that matter. Even extra surprisingly, when “The Kashmir File” was made a sure portion of Bollywood most well-liked not to assist it. Where was your “civil liberty and freedom of expression” at the moment, Mr Bachchan?
Since independence, the quantity of the Bengali Hindu group in Bangladesh (or erstwhile East Pakistan) dropped all the way down to round 6% from virtually 30%. Many films had been made on that problem however not one of the films addressed why the Bengali Hindu needed to transfer out from there. It was intentionally performed to serve some political functions. Towards the tip of the Nineteen Sixties, the key agent of the Soviet Union, KGB operated their wings to unfold cultural Marxism all through the world. With that intention, they captured the cinema trade in Kolkata which was the cultural capital of India at that time. You could marvel to know that the useless physique of the legendary Uttam Kumar was not allowed to enter Rabindra Sadan the as he was not a supporter of the ruling communist social gathering. After his demise, the Bengali movie trade grew to become a mere political device. Those celebrities bent their head all the way down to the ruler to capitalize on private acquire.
Nowadays, it is even worse. With the steady decline in the financial system of the state, individuals misplaced their curiosity in cinemas. Consequently, most Bengali movies these days are made with the intention to fulfill the Bengali-speaking majority of neighbouring Bangladesh. Therefore, these movies focus to demean Hinduism to realize consideration in Bangladesh. It additionally has some connection with West Bengal politics as it ideally matches with Mamata Banerjee’s appeasement politics in the direction of the minority to retain the chair.
Your assertion on liberty and freedom sounds ridiculous to me as you expressed it from the stage the place the Chief Minister of West Bengal was current because the host. A film on political satire, particularly, “Bhobissoter Bhoot (The Ghost of the future)” was banned in West Bengal underneath Mamata’s regime. Journalists like Sanmay Banerjee and Shafilkul Islam have been harassed for elevating their voices towards the dictatorship of Didi. People like me who don’t have any political connection had been threatened by the employees of the ruling social gathering once we posted one thing on social media towards the continued dictatorship. Very lately, frequent individuals had been hackled whereas they had been going to attend the assembly of the chief of the opposition in the state. It is onerous to consider that you do not conscious of how individuals had been killed, raped, and threatened after Mamata Banerjee received the state election in 2021 on the second day of May. I’m questioning when you tried to be sarcastic to place your opinion on freedom and liberty in entrance of the dictator Mamata Banerjee!
The function of my writing is not to demean you in any approach. I’m solely making an attempt to clarify the fact of the state underneath Mamata’s dictatorship. She has been oppressing the voice of frequent individuals, utilizing mass media to manage the narrative, rigging votes by utilizing the would possibly of her goons and most significantly utilizing “intellectuals” to idiot individuals. The individuals are helpless within the state. The younger era like me needed to depart our households to earn our livelihood and the remaining individuals within the state have been exploited politically to maintain the dictator politically related and alive.
Lastly, I sincerely consider that you’ll agree with me that freedom ought to circulate each methods. You choose the liberty to reward Mamata Banerjee for inviting you to the inauguration in KIFF and to disregard her ruthless political aggression to kill greater than 200 staff of the opposition social gathering. In the identical approach, individuals ought to have the freedom to pick films which glorify indigenous tradition and to boycott the flicks which demean the identical. I hope that make sense.
