Aamir - A Film Review

Aslam#16:

There is no persecution of Muslims in India; there numbers are growing and Muslims from Bangladesh are flocking to India illegally to join them. Discrimination is mostly in terms of economics and in a general suspicion of their loyalty, for which they have to blame themselves to a large extent. When a Muslim elected to be a Minister in the government announces a reward of Rs. 50 lakhs to anyone who kills a Danish cartoonist for his "gustakhi" against the Prophet, he fans such suspicions.

#18 Posted by dost_mittar on July 8, 2008 7:35:22 am

what about the militancy in kashmir..that began in 1989..

of course, unlike the vast majority of indians, you might not consider that a part of india.

pray tell..why are there ZERO indians in gitmo and a whole bunch pf pakis? why were the majority of the 9/11 terrorists from saudi arabia..a country that gives it's citizens pretty much free health care and the ability to study in the US on the government's dime..

injustice my mohammed...

arjun_m:

Yes, arjun, it is the sense of injustice that drives militancy, whether it was the Sikh militancy, Naxalites or Islamic militancy. Was there any Muslim militancy in India before the demolition of Babri masjid?
No, this does not justify terrorism, but it would be foolish to close your eyes to what precipitates it.

#16 Posted by aslam644 on July 8, 2008 7:09:21 am


Contrary to what jews would have us believe there were no persecution of them in western Europe

YGSM...you've gotta be shitting me..

Dost mitter sahib

Are muslims in India discriminated against or persecuted as well.

Contrary to what jews would have us believe there were no persecution of them in western Europe after enlightenment only some discrimination nazis were an aberration.
For jews to have achieved so much in academia, business etc, that wouldn’t have been possible if they had been persecuted.

#14 Posted by dost_mittar on July 8, 2008 6:14:18 am

now you're saying naxalites are the equivalent of your islamic jihadi buddies?

nb#12:

"Dostmittar, have you not seen any poor Hindus in bastis?"

yes, and they too have the potential of turning a hindu into a naxalite.

But I never said that these conditions actually turn Aamir into a jihadi.

#12 Posted by nb on July 8, 2008 4:57:06 am


Dostmittar, have you not seen any poor Hindus in bastis?


in kuldip nayyar's worldview, muslims have an allah given right to a standard of living higher than non-muslims..

anything less and it means they are oppressed..of course, there's no waay some of it could be blamed on the muslims ocmmunity itself...absolutely not..

Muslims in Muslim bastees of Mumbai live in such sub-human conditions that it would be natural for an ordinary person to feel revulsion and anger at their plight.

Dostmittar, have you not seen any poor Hindus in bastis? I can't tell what religion the great unwashed belong to.
Do you not feel for them?

I wrote this review right after watching the film. It seems to me now that I was so overtaken by the execution of the plot that some key flaws of the premise of the story escaped me. I am thinking here of two key components; one, jihadis in India are not known to resort to kidnapping of innocent people, let alone an entire family of innocent Muslims; two, they go through an elaborate plot of kidnapping and roping in a returning doctor for a terrorism act which seems rather routine and not something of huge magnitude, like attacking the Parliament.
But once you get past these flaws, it is a tightly knit and well executed venture.

HP:

I think that what Lubna pointed out is a flaw in the film. While one can see that the Jiahdi leader wanted someone for the mission who would look least suspicious, it is not clear why Aamir?

The film gives mixed messages as far as I can see. They are:
- An educated mainstream Indian of Muslim background faces the double whammy of target of suspicion by the majority community as well as alienation from his own community.

- Muslims in Muslim bastees of Mumbai live in such sub-human conditions that it would be natural for an ordinary person to feel revulsion and anger at their plight.

- I think that the overall impact of the film is a sympathy for the Muslim community. The sense that the community harbours terrorists is already there and the film does not add or substract anything in that respect; if anything, it points to the root cause of the community's alienation. At least, that was my feeling.

As for the rest of your comments, all I can say is that the film is basically a work of fiction and while it does provide a commentary on some aspects of society, it is not a documentary.

“He uses Occum’s razor and does not let his grip on the audience loosen by distracting songs or jokes; there is not even a heroine to amuse the hero or the audience.�

But what is the message? There is one in Lubna’s post but you reject that and talk of the plight. What was the need to create the whole terrorism scenario if the plight of Muslims was the theme? I mean the director has to make some connection somewhere. You have a physician with some credentials from the West. He is obviously not from the same Ghetto background.

Was the plight to evoke some compassion or to perpetuate the stereotype that all Muslims are ghetto dwellers? When the director picks up a terrorism theme with an educated Muslim and mixes it with ghetto, the message appears to be obvious.

good to see that some independent movies are making it out of the vomit factory that is bollywood.

The premise of the story seems a bit flawed...I mean, there must be millions of other guys that can be recruited...what's so special about this Aamir?

Again, it is another way to show the "bad muslims" ain't it :).

anyhow, what's good is that it was a non-formula film as far as bollywood goes.

thanks for the info

lubnaM:

Have you seen the film? It is not as simple as that. The film does not quite explain why Aamir was targetted for jihadic activity but once you accept that premise, the rest of the film is more realistic than most of the bollywood films.

nb:

okay, you can say that in the sense that it portrays the real plight of Muslims in contemporary society.

do u people really think that in a muslim society people are approached to participate in jihad the way u have described....u are terribly ill-informed and live in a world of fictioncreated by the media.