Local Liberal Dribble

I watched KKL a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised that it was a watchable movie. But unfortunately, the movie dishes out a lot of cliches. There are lots of characters and various viewpoints are represented, but the characters are all black and white - either all goody goody or all evil.

The CIA operatives are somewhat awkwardly used as the "balancing" act in the movie, lest the movie appear too critical of Pakistan alone.

Unless the root cause of this fanaticism (religious theology) is taken by the horns, nothing can change...it is all whitewash; underneath it all remains the same, until a few years later it surfaces again, somewhere else.

This sort of "moderate" picture has been brandished around ad nauseum by religious apologetics and their pathetic peers who lack the balls to call a spade a spade and hide behind the facade of political correctness.

KKL was one such pathetic excuse; surely by now we have heard them all, haven't we?

Dear NFP
you wrote:

"it's time we start addressing irrationally-charged matters like religious fanaticism as a psychological issue rather than an intellectual or an ideological one"

That is the crux of the discourse on religion, borne out by my own personal experience. I have personally observed that loss of identity (or an identity crisis), sense of insecurity and/or an emotional problem leads to religosity. Now I am not speaking for or against any religious system.. I think all are 'true' as 'constructed realities' of the adherents - because they 'believe' in those systems.

Look at the so called 'Taleban' and their supporters (mostly young, as per anecdotal evidence) in NWFP. There is a strong sense of deprivation, unemployment, tremendous global change dominated by Western culture (symbolised through the global media and transmitted through the dish antenas!!), there is the impotence of teh traditional tribal social structure to create social betterment AND of course there is the spineless government institutions. on top of all that, the rise of the alternative power structures because of the situation in Afghanistan...

Try to understand the symbolism of bombing CD shops, girls schools, providing vigilante justice, even suicide bombing etc... clearly a reaction because of a sense of insecurity. It is a strong sense of fear..albeit subconcious...An anology: when we see an insect 'perceived' to be very harmful, killing it is our knee jerk reaction...

Fearful of the West, steeped in traditional religious ideals, they are searching for an alternative paradigm, a sense of identity... call for 'sharia' is the only thing they know....they dont know Locke, Hume, Jeferson or Martin Luther et al!!! or even Jinnah for that matter...



Thanks

T Khan

p.s. masadi/zeemax/okhla etc... ok now I am ready for your attack!!

Re: # 3; Taurean

I am not sure if masadi sahib can be lumped together in the same league as brother Zeemax; although Zeemax is perhaps far more radical on-line than what he may be in real life too!......pure speculation (almost wishful thinking!)

NFP - very interesting review. I have not seen it as yet - though I have the DVD with me. Now I will see it. Thanks.

BTW this review and your view is in slight variance to Mantolives gloving review of the same film.

Dash babu,

I have not watched the movie. But one thing that would have appealed to Yasser mian (and me) would no doubt be that in the movie a character played by an Indian actor trashed the G-man.

Regards

Re: # 6; majumdar,
[[a character played by an Indian actor trashed the G-man.]]

You mean Nasir-ud-din Shah? when??

Oops, sorry..... actually Naseer didn't trash the G-man but praised the J-man. But getting an Indian to praise the J-man is a big achievement anyway.

Regards

Re: # 8; majumdar

he was being paid good money to act the part; he'd have praised the G-spot for the right price! let alone the G-man/J-man

Regards

I think it’s quite offensive to legitimate psychologically unwell people to lump sum religious fanatics with them. That's one sorryass excuse.

akcheema #9 (T)

that is what I was thinking as I just read Majumdar in #9

It is called acting .... and hence entertainment

Mr. Paracha,

Though I agree with you that the movie leaves a lot to be desired, must say you left out an important aspect of the film in your critic.

The fear on the face of the Pakistani father seeing his daughter resting her head on the shoulder of a gora was the most telling scene of this movie. It reminded me of an interview I had seen of Salman Rushdie. When asked if 'fundamentalism was the root cause of terror', he replied
'no, they both have a common root cause. Fear of sexuality, especially fear of the female as a sexual person in the psyche of some believers.'

This is classic NFP drivel. I cant believe he has only just seen it and was actually bashing it prior to watching it.

It's a superb piece of well-researched, well thought-out and crafted work by ShoMan.

Aanandk i disagree there, the characters aren't black and white at all, Maulana Tahiri was actually quite unpredictable, started off a bit of a charmer. The darker depths of his character were then exposed in subtle layers. Thats just one example, and that makes it quite true to life. Even the 'saintly' character played by Shah got an ear-bashing at some point.

Black and white would've been Fawad Khan's 'Sarmad' having done some muscle-flexing heroics ala Bollywood style, but he remained the bumbling-kid-having-lead-a-sheltered-life throughout.

Sorry guys but cinema couldn't get any better.
Dont just criticise it for the sake of criticising.

“Religious fanaticism is a social, economic, and psychological problem, or in other words, it is a purely modern human problem rather than only an ideological one.�

Well said Nadeem. After a long time you appeared to have finally recaptured your distinct intellectual mojo. The problem of religious fanaticism is not about the Muslims alone. This web site is actually a showcase of what is wrong with the religious fanaticism. We not only have Muslims but Hindus and Ahmedis religious fanatics too. While the Muslims are extolling the virtues of the criminals in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Hindus are magnifying the benefits of caste system and claim that dalits get better treatment in the caste system. For Ahmedis, the innovative use of cusses is the highlight of the Ahmedi message.

The Christian fundamentalists in the US appear to be freshly out of the Cuckoo's nest. The Jewish fundamentalists are promoting only the violent methods of conflict resolutions. Surprisingly, some in a community that barely a few decades ago went through the most horrible and torturous period of its history, promote nuke drops on other people.

This phenomenal rise of the religious fanaticism worldwide is astounding. I am sure in time scholars would begin to look for the causes that are not so obvious now. Unfortunately, Muslims and especially some educated Pakistani Muslims have caught the bug too. It is one thing to see the uneducated youth following a crooked message, but now we see people with some faculty to figure out right from wrong, following a path of destruction.

Couching political demands in religious language is the work of non political actors. When non political actors become the leaders in a community, the solutions offered don’t lead to peace but to destruction.

The society still hasn’t reached a level of sickness that is incurable. So, every attempt to show the pitfalls no matter how feeble is appreciable. In that regard, perhaps, there was some value in the movie. Otoh, can we just continue to tiptoe around the issues?

I haven’t seen the movie but I believed that produced by a group that is partially responsible for the state of affairs in Pakistan; the message could not be credible. Your review just confirmed my thoughts.

[... believed that produced by a group that is partially responsible for the state of affairs in Pakistan; the message could not be credible...]

What the heck is HP talking about?... paki army produced this movie?

anyhoo - good write up from nadeem...

I remember a bunch pakis were going ga ga over this movie - it was as if this movie was like best thing since sliced samosa... I wonder what the fuss all about...