Is Singh actually a Kinng... or the height of Bollywood's sarcasm?
With the release of the film Singh is Kinngh, Bollywood has retained its reputation of being anti-sikh and ethnically offensive to the Sikh religion. Akshay Kumar plays the role of a turbaned Sikh from a small village. Turbaned Sikh!?! Or a Sikh who wears a readymade cap throughout the entire film that simply looks like a turban?
This film propagates the comical image of a Sikh as a buffoon - the image which has been used in other Bollywood films as well. It portrays his backwardness and uncivilized behaviour as an inseparable part of the Sikh community. The film is a complete disaster with regard to portrayal of the divinity and the elegance of of a "Pooran Gursikh."
In the initial part of the film, Akshay walks around with a shabby unshaven beard and wears an untidy turban while the co-stars, Om Puri and some others, are shown clean-shaven with turbans. It's just the beginning, and it already looks bad. They remind you of those Punjabi singers who come and go all the time. The ones who themselves live as "patits" while they loudly sing the praises of Sikhism.
This shameful day was inevitable since we've tolerated our own boys and girls destroying the Sikhi swaroops and moulding them according to their own personal requirements. Anybody who is clean-shaven or trims his beard, or has a haircut but wears a turban over it, or who leaves his beard unshaven as a show to the rest of the world - or any other person, who, having turned his back on his Guru, considers himself to be equal to, or sometimes even superior to a baptized pooran Gursikh.
The film is a purely a commercial "masala film" that has been made to earn money at the expense of others' religious sentiments, which I find highly objectionable. There are only a few scenes in the film where Akhshay has tied a stiff and smart turban but most of the time he's wearing a big cap that looks somewhat like a turban.
Putting religion aside, the film, if looked at from the point of view of an ordinary cosmopolitan person is a "watch it once" entertainment with a sarcastic sense of humour. But if you are seeing it through the eyes of a pooran Gursikh, it may hurt a lot since the visual identity of the Sikhs portrayed in this film is highly offensive and taking it in through your eyes gives a poisonous stimulus to the brain. I got the feeling that the makers of this film are not genuinely Sikh-friendly at all, but have simply tried to make friends with Sikhs to capitalize on the Sikh identity. The film demonstrates the real lack of knowledge of the film-makers regarding the ethnic and moral values of Sikhs including our turbans and unshorn hair.
A song in the film has been shot with Javed Jaafree where he has just danced and left his hair lose. This reminds of a young Cricketer from our own community letting his hair lose to advertize a brand of liquor. This act of his was highly opposed by the Sikh hardliners and those signboards were forced to be removed from the roadside and those advertisements banned as he belongs to our own community. What's wrong these people now?
The only way the film may have have done some good is in terms of mass awareness. The title itself is quite persuasive and compelling which arouses a curiosity in the audience to go and see what it is that makes a Singh a King. It must have impressed the portion of the population which is ignorant about Sikhi, even those of knowledge worker age, but people who have the knowledge and love of Sikhi won't learn anything new.
Really, I can't rate it more than one star out of five
Fortunately, there was no direct negativity or blasphemy done in the film against Sikhism but just the usual obnoxious sense of humour which has again indirectly targeted the naivete or ingenuousness of sikhs, and which I must rate as idiotic.
There's a scene in the film where Akhsay says that, "Sikhs are made to serve others". Does that mean Sikhs should serve all no matter what they do? Sikhs should serve people even if they crush their dreams, self-esteem and even their independent identity? Bollywood tries its best to prove Sikhism as an offshoot of Hinduism which was the very reason for the 1984 protests. This raises a lot of questions about the Indian film industry and India itself.
Is India a safe land for Sikhs where their rights and their identity can be protected? Is India a truly multi-religious nation or it is just HINDUSTAN?
I just want to put forth my own point of view and give a wake-up call to our community to distinguish between those who really care about Sikhi and those who don't.
I feel that we are being victimized by the media. Every time this happens, we rationalize it by calling those people fanatics who really stand for our rights and the pride in our Divine visual identity blessed to us by Dashmesh pitaah.
May GOD bless all and may we all enjoy the reign of Khalsa soon.
-An Ordinary Sikh
