Sindoor scene in Gadar turned love story sour


Muslims in the city are "disgusted" with a Jat applying sindoor on the head of a Muslim girl. Sunny Deol applying vermilion on Amisha Patel reportedly prompted the violence at Sangam cinema in Sarkhej area of the city on Sunday night. The theatre owners have discontinued the screening of the soured love story, Gadar-Ek Prem Katha.

"This will incur a daily loss of Rs 40,000 to us, but we have no option," a beleaguered owner of the Sangam cinema, Mr. Suryakant Patel told on Monday.

On Sunday night, when the sindoor scene was on during the last show, an irate mob indulged in violence and burnt the screen of the Sangam theatre and also set vehicles in the parking lot on fire.

The case has been registered under the Sarkhej police station under Section 143,435, 120(B). The police inspector of the Sarkhej police station, Mr. M.C.Patel is investigating the case. The forensic team took the samples at the site of the incident and sniffer dogs were brought to the scene but no significant progress has been made till now.

Meanwhile, local residents in Sarkhej, a Muslim dominated area, are irked by what they call the censor board’s insensitivity in giving the screening certificate to the film. There was much anger among the local residents of some Muslim dominated areas against the film.

One of the youth requesting anonymity said, "Why does the government and the censor board gives certificate to such films in spite of the fact that they increase communal tension?" Another resident of the same locality, whose vehicle was burnt in the incident, said that he found the scene in which the hero who is a Jat (Sunny Deol) applies sindoor on the forehead of the Muslim girl (Amisha Patel), the most objectionable.

"How can anyone show a non-Muslim guy applying sindoor on the forehead of a Muslim girl," he asks. Similarly, a middle-aged man from the same area puts the whole blame on the BJP government and says, "The whole country has gone into the wrong hands and such incidents of communal tension are bound to be there as long as they are in power."

The same anger was visible among the people residing in the Hindu dominated areas. The scene depicting indiscriminate slaughter of Hindus leaving Pakistan has raised tensions and it has increased their hatred against Pakistan. "The scene of the train carrying the massacred bodies coming to India from Pakistan raised my anger and hatred against Pakistan," said a youngster who just came out after watching the movie from the Amber cinema hall. Another person, who also seemed to be influenced by the scene depicting the massacre of Indians, went on to say that the talks between India and Pakistan scheduled in July will definitely fail as war is the only solution to end the Kashmir tangle."

On the other hand, the screening of the film went on smoothly in the other cinema halls of the city. There were no reports of any untoward incidents regarding the film in these cinema halls. "The film is going on house full and we do not have any problems, its just that some disgruntled elements are taking undue advantage of the situation to increase tension in the city," said the manager of a well known cinema hall where the film is being screened. "There was no problem with the film and I don’t understand why people keep on fighting on irrelevant issues after 50 years of their occurrence, said one of the film enthusiast, who came to watch the film at Drive in cinema hall.

Republished from TheAsian Age