There are many posts and articles which have been doing the rounds that Raees is celebration or glorification of criminal (possibly linking to a big drug mafia and criminal called Abdul Latif who structured his empire around illicit liquor. With the help of crime, cops and politicians, he graduated from selling liquor in a gambling den to establishing the most feared mafia in the state of Gujarat to even a suspect in Mumbai’s 93 bomb blast.), But is Raees really a celebration of crime and making Latif’s life an inspiration for all those who are watching Raees?
Let me make it very clear, that Raees is NOT a glorification of criminal and the people who are saying so are those who hates Shah Rukh Khan, not those who hate those films being made on india’s biggest gansters.
I know many people on social media who in some way had a feeling that Shah Rukh is an anti-national person possibly because he tried helping Pakistan during flood by organizing an event in London which he later backed out because of Shivsena’s comment on him of supporting an enemy country, his intolerance remarks on Nov 2, 2015 added more to it, when he said that there is growing sense of intolerance, and it was seen as an attack on Narendra Modi and by this comment Shah Rukh ensured that his anti-national image gets more weightage, I was taken by surprise when SRK made this statement to Rajdeep and Barkha on the eve of his birthday. I had a series of tweets to SRK saying that you have totally come under influence of your friend Rahul Dholakia, Mahesh Bhatt, Javed Akhtar *(who even requested people not to vote to Modi); or Barkha, Rajdeep who has even more hates towards Modi in spite of Modi getting a clean chit in 2002 gujarat riots.
There was a murder of Mohammad Akhlaq in state of UP in a family supposedly because they were eating beef which is banned to respect the sentiments of hindus in India and many Bollywood and other artists who had never wanted Narendra Modi to be PM, came along and had a march, returned their awards and said India has become intolerant due to Modi’s becoming PM post 2014. Shahrukh supported them by saying I don’t have a national award and had I received one, I too could have returned in support of their protest, It is SRK’s prerogative to do what he wants, but saying that India has suddenly become intolerant, SRK badly hurt India’s image and to those middle class Indians who voted and believed in Modi and Modi’s idea of developing India and most of them made SRK a superstar too.
There was no intolerance then and there is no intolerance now, If a person’s life was lost due to mob in UP because of beef; then there is a death of SRK fan Farid Khan Pathan due to some mismanagement at Vadodara railway station too and linking Modi to death of the old man in UP is same as linking SRK to death of his old fan who came to see him.
Aamir Khan went even further and said about leaving India due to intolerance, His film Dangal released one year later and knowing what has happened with SRK’s Dilwale due to intolerance, he showed it to some powerful man linked to BJP and government and they praised, so social media people became more silent and stopped so called #BoycottDangal protest.
I condemned both SRK and Aamir on their remarks and so did the government and most of Indians, because at no cost Indians can bad-mouth India without any reason simply because they have disliking towards Narendra Modi.
All said and done, going back to the main topic, Raees is a film, well researched by some of Rahul Dholakia team on how illicit trade of liquor was being done in Gujarat, a state with prohibition on alcohol in respect to Mahatma Gandhi and how mafias were building empires by using their political links. The film revolves around Dhandha (Work/Business) and hence the dialogue, Dhandhe se bada koi dharma nahi (there is no bigger religion than the work). This illicit trade required a vast and intricate chain of suppliers, transporters, distributors, retailers and the support of corrupt excise and police officers, apart from their political masters. The film is all about this supply chain, politicians and a heroine apart from cops who kills Raees in the end.
As far as glorifying criminals is concerned; same people who is now holding SRK responsible for it, never expressed their view when Vivek Oberio’s Company was released on the life of Dawood Ibrahim or Ajay Devgn’s Haji Mastan-inspired character in Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010).
Even India’s greatest star Amitabh Bachchan played negative role where criminals were shown almost like a larger than life role : Deewar which still remains possibly the best hindi film or Don which is such a cult that SRK remade the film to play the character himself; not to forget “Godfather” and in Hindi “Sarkar”.
Hence only those who people who were hurt by SRK’s intolerance remarks because that was bad-mouthing India in the world by a person of his stature, because of possibly his disliking to Narendra Modi as PM or those who hate him because of some other reasons are saying Raees is glorifying gangster, the fact remains that villains in such films always are the main protagonist and people somehow like them; be it Bachchan in Deewar or Amreesh Puri in Mr. India or Ajay Devgn in Once Upon a Time in Mumbai ; but at the end it is not about glorifying bad guys; but it is about experiencing the film. Film-maker wants their audience to enjoy them.
Go and Enjoy Raees without thinking about senseless posts on news and social media and as far as SRK is concerned, he is not anti-national, but one of the Indian who has made India proud on most occasion and yes bad-mouthed India on one and yes, if you are still hurt on SRK’s intolerance, don’t watch; but then stop saying about glorification of criminals about Raees. It is simply a film about villain and hero and the liquor trade with some nice songs.
By Avinash Choubey (@avinashchoubey on twitter)
Note: This is purely personal opinion.
Correct Point 