Sense & Insensibility
Return of the Pirates of Golden Bengal?
Whose colours will be hoisted on December 30? Photo: Getty Images
WE are eagerly waiting for the release of the sequel to Pirates of Golden Bengal. The title of the second part is Return of the Pirates of Golden Bengal, and know what? The same cast and crew have joined together to make this film, which promises to be as entertaining as the first one, with horrendous scenes of rape, knifing, shooting, street violence, kidnapping, arson and what not. Along with these gory scenes there will be dialogues filled with lies and deceit, false promises and denials, denigration and disparagement, to keep the audience wondering. Ah, you ask about the budget? Don't you worry, it is going to be a mega-budget movie and the money is coming from right, left, front, back, up and bottom. In fact, there is a constant supply of money -- black, white, red, green -- to spend on big time publicity, so that the movie becomes a box office hit, just as did the first one. It did run full-house for five long years. So, the sequel makers are quite excited that the second part, Return of the Pirates of Golden Bengal, will be another smashing hit and run for another five years. You see, in this era of electronic communication boom, publicity plays the vital role in getting you to places you want to be. If you are good at having a number of electronic media under your payroll, you will be able to befool a whole lot of gullible people in this country. Once dazed by a strong dose of publicity stunt, this whole lot of people will queue up to watch the sequel again and again, and clap at the ingenuity of the filmmakers and the cast and crew. Their eyes will pop out at the incredible things the band of pirates will do right before their eyes. They will keep wondering, after leaving the theatre, when were they robbed of their money, land, water-bodies, homes, factories and graveyards! People, in general, get drawn to violence-filled pirate movies instead of something that talks about dignity, hard work, honesty, discipline, nation building or integrity. It is possibly because violence is deeply buried in our unconscious, which finds a release through watching those movies. We watch the looting, plundering, sword fights and murders in the films with great interest, unknowingly imagining ourselves in the role of those pirates. We secretly want to be as strong, courageous, invincible and lawless as those pirates. We do not want to be as cool and composed as Tajuddin Ahmed; we do not want to be as wise as Amartya Sen; we do not want to be as patriotic as Martin Luther King. Interesting observationsLately, I have come across a plethora of thoughts of men and women who think deep about this country they love and want to see it placed high among the progressive countries. I could sense the underlying pain and frustration in each line, and thought of sharing these with you. A letter writer wanted to know what his immediate past generation did to arrange the trials of the war criminals, and why are we shouting about it 37 years after the liberation! He was disturbed at the fact that some of the war criminals flew the flag of Bangladesh on their cars when they became ministers. He thought it was a mockery of our liberation war, and we gave those war criminals the opportunity to laugh at our inability to ensure justice for those who sacrificed their lives for our liberty. He goes on to say: "Our failure to punish these barefaced collaborators actually endorses the view once held by these traitors: 'the Bengalis are only good at talking, not at doing'." In another letter another citizen said that both the major political parties have made controversial alliances. He strongly argued that "to save the nation from endless miseries, we must not vote for the corrupt candidates. And if we find no honest candidates we must cast 'no' votes." Being frustrated and angered by the call of militants for chopping-off the heads of those who refuse to follow their beliefs, another letter writer stressed that Muslims were not permitted to kill a human, even an enemy soldier, unjustly. He said that there was no room for terrorism or terrorists in Islam. Therefore, "time has come when Muslims of the world should commission religious as well as moral instruments to fight against terrorism!" Then I noticed an interesting letter in this daily on the election manifesto. He believed that the promises of the two major parties included "all aspects and expectations of the people, from eradication of corruption to ensuring job for at least one youth from each family." But the writer has asked the pertinent question at this point. He asked: "When someone promises something, there should also be another clause telling what the promising parties will do in case they fail to fulfill the promises for which the people will vote them. Each party can also add one more promise, that if it is voted to power but fails to fulfill 60% of its election promises within first three years of its tenure, the government will resign and handover power to the opposition for the remaining two years. This system will enable the people to decide easily the fate of the parties during the next general election. However, to evaluate the performance/achievement of the party in power, there should an independent body, and that is the crux of the matter." Now, aren't those great thoughts? Yes, they are. But, I wonder when we have such wise people in this country, how come Altoos and Faltoos get elected to come to parliament!
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