Best Baked Creatively ……Of Rani Padminis and Bilkis Banos
A hundred years he suffered
A writer’s block can be stifling
A pal then said “Try Psy” ….Psyllium Husk
And Lie-a-cut Khan found life worth living.
In relief the Khan got creative
A hundred years’ pain becomes distant memory
Lending both enchantment and poetic licence to the view.
Whether for Best or worst, the Bakery
Bakes some stories in its fertile oven
Justice can be bemused. Surely Sister Bano wasn’t abused
There was no carnage, no rape of the innocent
Just a few lovelorn youths getting delinquent.
Bereft of sensitivity, creativity could be mockery
To paint Lust as just a Romance gone awry.
No brother of Sister Banu or son of Mother Padmini
Need feel enraged in private too….
For we can be creative like this only.
For all we know, Allaudin Khilji had been a noble soul….
Temples as far south as Madurai got desecrated on their own…..
No public outrage, this needs trigger
For we are secular and is not Allahu Akbar?
No public outrage, this needs trigger
For we are secular and is not Allahu Akbar?
(NewsTikka stands for the secular, democratic and plural fabric of India. The above is based on newspaper reports of insensitive portrayal of Allaudin Khilji and Rani Padmini or Padmavati. Mr Bhansali has ostensibly refuted this, but the film is still under wraps, awaiting release on Dec 1, 2017. The filmaker has refused a screening to select stakeholders maybe to protect his commercial interests, but this has only triggered a lot of unease, including the one as evinced above. NewsTikka is all for protecting the creative licenses of artists, but artists should also be sensitive to sensibilities)
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