Fictional piece:
Setting: Velankanni seashore in India. There is a mild breeze blowing and the tiny droplets of rain are soothing.
Reporter: Da Vinci Code-ai ban pannitaangalaamae? (Da Vinci Code has been banned. What do you think about it?)
The reporter is addressing a Christian couple headed to the local market. The lady has a basket full of fishes on her head, balancing an infant on her hips and walking briskly towards the local market with her husband bearing an equal load on his head
Man : Mariyaadhaiya pesu paa: yenna "Da" podarae? (Speak with respect. 'DA' being a derogatory term in Tamil)
Lady: Ayyo irunga....yedho kodai venum pol irukku (Oh wait....maybe he wants an umbrella. Kodai (Code-ai) in Tamil means Umbrella)
The reporter hastens to explain that he is neither treating the man with disrespect nor asking for an umbrella. He explains in some depth about the book authored by Dan Brown, that has been banned, while the fidgety couple glance market-ward in their worry that they may not quite make it to the local market for prime spots to sell their wares.
Lady: Ohh! Browns colour-aa? Addhaan mannu colour. Adhhukku yenna ippo? (Brown is the colour of mud. So what?)
Reporter: Ayyo.......andha Brown illai. Ivar vandhu English-la book ezhudhi irukkaru.(This Brown is an English author)
Man: AAma .......Tamil padikaave aala kaanum. Idhila English veraiya? (I can barely read Tamil, so who cares about an English book)
Couple together: Verai velai vetti illa? Kaalangaarthalae vandhittan yedho book-a patthi pesa. Boney-meeen venum-aa? (Useless fellow wasting everybody's time in the morning. At least be the first customer to buy some fish!)
Newsitem in The Hindu dated 2nd June 2006 banning the Da Vinci Code movie from being released in Andhra Pradesh:
Dr. Reddy, sources said, was initially reluctant to support the ban. He argued that the original novel had already sold more than 60.5 million copies throughout the world and no Christian country had preferred the ban. He, however, relented when the officials cautioned him about possible law and order problems if the film was screened.
Later in a press release, Mr. Paul Bhuyan justified the stand arguing that the minority organisations had pointed out that the film's story line attacked the very heart of the Holy Gospel destroying the divinity of Lord Jesus Christ.
It might lead to unrest among the semi-literate and illiterate rural folk following the faith, they had further warned.
The movie has been successfully released in Rome!
6 comments:
Well Written...! LOL
Similar thoughts entered my mind when I read the news yesterday about the movie's ban in TamilNadu.
Unless the movie is dubbed in Tamil, I doubt if the rural masses would even watch it and ofcourse, once dubbed ,it will be a comedy instead of a thriller anyway..:-)
Really well written ... u shud try ur hand with story writing ... with short conversations :-) nice sarcasm! Its all politics and narrow mindedness to impose these bans etc.
Here in US the first two days were completely House full ... and mostly all Christians .. people are pretty open minded in general and not dumb at all!
Exactly my point....the educated, open-minded lot know what to absorb, and what not to. So why ban? Now, I am sure more people are curious to what is there in the movie!
Yes-- the movie is indeed very well taken given that he would have had that constant pressure to measure up to a best seller.
As any avid book reader's grouse, probably this movie doesn't show everything in the book but is a pretty darn good balance for a media release!
And... Saumya-- as always you shine with words (-:
You summarized the actual problem very well. Common man/woman couldn't care less about Da Vinci Code.
My only concern with this banning is, Hindu groups can use it as great example of government appeasing minority at any cost. And use this scenario to their advantage. Which may cause more instablity than watching a movie taken by a westerner about their own religion :)
Funny that Italy/Vatican has no issue with this movie and they did not ban there!!
Brainwaves....that is a very good point: Given the volatility of the secular situation in India, anything can be doused in a bad light!
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