Why Bheja Fry is a disturbing film!
After watching Ranvir Shorey in Khosla ka Ghosla, it’s difficult to believe, he’s the same actor who plays Asif Merchant in Bheja Fry. It’s not about acting but about the weird, abnormal and irritating-after-a-while face that he keeps in the film. I fail to understand if his face didn’t suit the role why on earth he had to play it. But that’s not disturbing about his character!
What disturbs me is that Asif Merchant seemingly a Muslim is portrayed as a supporter of Pakistani cricket team!!!
It’s interesting to see how a political propaganda makes its way into popular Hindi cinema. Asif Merchant is not only a continuation of Tezab’s Lotiya Pathan but he emerges as the new icon of misrepresentation.
Well, I did try to look for reasons of Asif’s cricket fanaticism within the film, surprisingly there are none. He is plain and simple cricket fanatics and without any justification within the film supports Pakistani team! I kept anticipating that this stereotypical characterization would eventually turn out to be a satire but my prayers didn’t reach the filmmaker.
The most disturbing thing about Bheja Fry is that Asif Merchant, supposedly a Muslim, is Pakistan supporter without any motivation or reason! He’s simply a Pakistan supporter!
When Bollywood seems to be all game for newer ideas, why can’t stereotypes be put on their heads! Why can’t Bharat Bhushan be a Pakistan supporter! It would have added another dimension to that terrific character.
I’m not sure if Asif’s portrayal as a supporter of Pakistani cricket team was necessary. However I can definitely say that the film would have been equally entertaining without it.
Well, one can say when Hollywood can produce 300 and rake in moolah, what stops Bollywood! However the saddest part of it is that Bheja Fry isn’t about cricket or communal ism or subcontinental politics. It’s a plain and simple entertaining film. To an extent it seems a victim of tinted opinion rather than being a perpetrator of it.
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why is the fact that he supports the pakistan cricket team bothering you so much?
Yet to Watch this
because that’s part of the stereotypical image right wing politicians project of an Indian Muslim…a pakistan supporter; cricket or otherwise..
Dear Bikas,
Last night over cup of coffee, a very dear friend asked my views on Bheja Fry.
My answer was different than many of my colleagues on whose insistence I went to watch Bheja Fry! They all found it extremely ‘refreshing/ entertaining’. I dint find it entertaining! I thought it was an important film! Why? Because, it has led me to think about issues of ‘lonely self in a city; small town aspirations’, and ‘notion of high art/artist’ etc.
Apart from finding Bheja Fry ‘important’ for above mentioned reasons, I should confess that I was ‘disappointed’ after watching the film. I would not say I was ‘disturbed’! Why? Because this is not for the first time that we have a ‘contrived’ Muslim Character.
Bollywood has fixed ‘Muslims’ in an image! Who can shake it! Perhaps films like Bheja Fry? This is exactly what I thought! But does it? The answer is it has further complicated it!
No film has disappointed me as much as Bheja Fry vis a vis representation of a Muslim.
I will tell you why? In Bheja Fry, the filmmaker definitely carries a burden of his liberal image and all those criticism that he has done to the films before getting funds for Bheja Fry! So he moved little bit from the league?
1- He has not shown a Muslim wearing a skull cap/ jaali ka banyan and a Taweez
2- The Muslim character does not live in Jama Masjid area… he is neither ultra patriotic nor is he traitor/terrorist
This could have been a relief??????????????
But the director of Bheja Fry has complicated in his own way….
He has shown a Muslim Being an IT officer…… but does he go far than this …. No, Asif supports Pakistan and he has a very very tensed look/convoluted face….. Not relaxed at all…. Does not look like other ‘normal’ guy around…. He looks ‘Contrived’… and that’s what Muslim’s characters in the Bollywood films are. They are contrived by imagination, but here we have a ‘contrived’ Muslim character…..
So why do we have this theory that Hindi films is going through a phase where ‘young and more liberal film makers’ are making a bold statement!
If Asif’s charcter is bold…. Then may God bless so many ‘young/ creative filmmakers’ who are getting to make films on the name of ‘new cinema’, ‘ meaningful cinema’…… I PITY them!!!