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The cultural richness of Hinduism has always provided endless possibilities for artists and performers to enrich and enlarge their creative orbit. The profundity of this universal religion has prompted a multitude of creative souls to borrow Hindu themes and motifs to use them liberally in their works. In many cases this has added to the quality of the creative product and benefited the Hindu heritage. But in some cases it has only resulted in the creation of tasteless spoofs and created nothing more than confusion and quandary in the minds of people - both Hindu and non-Hindu. Here are a few such cases from Hollywood:
Eyes
Wide Shut
In
June 1999, when the 41-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil Carnatic vocalist Manickam
Yogeswaran was asked to chant the verses of the Bhagvad Gita in a London
studio, little did he know that his recital would form the background composition
to the Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman lovemaking scene in Stanley Kubrick's controversial
film Eyes Wide Shut. Later Yogeswaran said: "Unfortunately I had
no idea about the context in which the chanting would be used."
Such an East-West fusion may be in for an ovation and perhaps it may even gratify aesthetic abstractions, but on the other hand it is definitely a serious infringement on the cultural and religious sentiments of the Hindus. Suffice it to say, for the Hindus, the Gita is too sacrosanct to be adopted for such portrayals.
The Hindu organisations in the US remonstrated against the use of the Gita verses "Parithranaya Saadhunam Vinashaya cha dushkrithaam Dharmasamsthabanarthaya Sambhavami yuge yuge..." in the orgy scene, and demanded the withdrawal of the recital from the film. A member of South Asian Journalists Association in the US commented: "Hindu symbols and motifs are perceived as a soft target. The same artists would think real hard before causing offence to any of the Semitic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), but no one is scared of a Hindu backlash."
Holy
Smoke
Jane Campion's scandalous Hollywood film Holy Smoke, starring Kate Winslet
and Harvey Keitel had also faced a lot of opposition from certain quarters,
especially during its shooting in India, for allegedly portraying Hinduism in
an impious manner.
Nine
Lives
In
1997, protests by thousands of Hindus and by the American Hindu Anti-Defamation
Coalition forced Sony Music to withdraw Aerosmith's Nine Lives CD. The
CD was based on a traditional Hindu depiction of Lord Krishna, but with a cat's
face with breasts.
Indiana
Jones & the Temple of Doom
Even Steven Speilberg hasn't taken Hinduism too seriously. His Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom presents two images of woman: Woman as Clown and
Woman as Demon. Taking unlimited liberties with the Hindu theology, Speilberg
presents the Hindu Goddess Kali as a demon rather than goddess. She is depicted
as the counterpart to Satan, enabling the evil-doers to acquire Satanic power
- robbing poor villagers, causing poverty, kidnapping children and enslaving
them. Lord Shiva on the other hand is portrayed as an image of Christ. This
depiction becomes ridiculous in the context of traditional Hindu concepts where
Kali is the force that destroys evil represented by the demon Raktabeej and
Shiva is her consort lying prostrate at Kali's feet.
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