Bandya Ho

A soulful rendition in the movie “Khuda Ke Liye” caught my attention recently. I must say this has been one of the most inspirational as well as musical heard recently. Pleading to Bulle shah to change his actions, his family tells him that he has brought disrepute to the family. They urge him to act as per his din, to which he considers himself to have reached a higher platform than the caste system. The movie has a larger part shot in Lahore, bordering Afghanistan and remaining in the US. The movie is centered about two parts of a Pakistani Muslim family, one settled in London and the other in the suburbs of Lahore.While the theme is the effect of Mujahideen and its beliefs on the common and surprisingly educated people living in Pakistan, and also the post 9/11 treatment of Islam community. The movie has captured the attention of the audience with great music scores which are a fusion between the light English pop and the sufi strains written in Punjabi and another native lingo. Painful to a certain extent if you are a woman (and more necessarily human) but a recommended watch definitely. Great for Pakistani and Indian audiences although the latter does find a dialogue by the protagonist Mansoor regarding Pakistan having built Taj Mahal and having ruled India for over 1000 years impossible to digest. Interestingly, the protagonist sings an Awadhi (pure Hindi) song while terming it as a Pakistani music. Otherwise very pragmatic in its flow, the movie stands out from the usual run around the trees crap our Asian audience is accustomed to, so I won’t be surprised if it goes unnoticed on the box office like logical movies like Water which have been subjected to delirious treatment in the past. As u read this, the movie has been issued Fatwa's and has been regarded as blasphemous by a certain Ghazi. The whole movie in my perspective can be made to stand on three pillars of human actions
**We care more about what society thinks about us and at times this hits our own self too hard.
** We tend to generalize the act of one man to his/her complete community
**When we are in dark (uneducated) even the bleakest source of light makes us follow it. Its like made to believe in a black hole as a star

Our identity is created by the society but we have every right to define ourselves and make our own moves. Religion and cultures cut across geographic boundaries and we need to respect if not love the neighbors culture. Can it be justified that America’s attack on Taliban post 9/11 is justified or not but I’d surely ask aren’t we murdering an eye that had already been blinded for an eye?A fanatic is like a blind man who knows how to throw a grenade but forgets that it bounces back when it hits the wall….All I will say in the end is that after reading books like “On the road to Kandahar”, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “The Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hameed, I sometimes feel like starting an NGO and taking it to the bordering areas of Pakistan where a lot of so called madrasas survive only for militant training. To fight in the name of god is one thing and to destroy humanity is another. Again this strengthens my belief that we survive for the society. I could never have an answer to a self created question “If all religions preach that god lives in each of its creations, then isn’t killing god himself in his own name ironical?”…Perhaps the world needs another Bulle Shah to preach the lesson of congenial living to the society and to tell them to move beyond the principle of our god…God is there and isn’t that just enough…believe in him or not are only two different ways but at least we should not divide his disposition in the name of our beliefs…He may just have one belief regarding all of us i.e to treat us all equal as children…..a man made labyrinth of cultural beliefs is what seems to have trapped god…. Think about it, the world needs to and I am….Meanwhile I continue listening the calling “Bandya Ho”, I hope no freak stops me from singing my heart out....