This ain't no poetic license

I haven't seen the movie Gulaal yet and I am glad I haven't. If the mindless lyrics of the songs is any indication, the makers of the movie need a course in sensitivity. There is a song that is quite popular with the local DJ's. It is titled "Rana ji more". It uses a tpical Rajasthani flavor in terms of language and even the music style to spell out the agony of a woman whose lover is being unreasonable and furious.

Now most folk songs have a palyful tone and a lot gets said which would not otherwise be said in our uptight urbane settings. But my objection with the song is not that. It is this line that shocked me "jaise dur desh ke tower mein ghus jaaye aeroplane". A clear and obvious reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trace Centre. But more than just the lyrics what surprised me was the context in which this line is being used. The lover's unreasonable anger and his tantrums are compared to the mayhem caused by a plane smashing into a large tower. This is clearly an insult to the memory of all those innocent people who lost their lives in this mindless act of brutality and also shows complete lack of sensitivity to what that act means in our modern history.

For a nation that has people always ready to object to any small thing- I am outraged that all the RJ's who are playing this song are not boycotting it for it's insulting lyrics. We had a pink panty brigade for those who objected to women drinking in public but we will blare a song that celebrates an act of terrorism just to make our home bound commute a little easier!

The lyrics are written by none other than the celebrated theatre director, actor and lyricist Piyush Mishra who has given us beautiful songs such as "Aye ajnabi" in Dil se. Surely a person of his artistic back ground and achievement should have more sense than to perpetrate such a lack of sensitivity to his fellow beings.

Mr. Mishra I intend to find a way to reach out to you and make you realise that as someone who was there in the US when this happened and who lived through the after math of this- it can not be allowed to be belittled in the name of poetic license and political frankness.