Kalifulla Khan

The message of Kalifulla Khan

Dasavatharam says a whole lot of things: questions beliefs, explores theories, offers explanations and entertains. The messages that one can take home from Dasavatharam are many, most of them are obvious while there seem to be a few that are hidden in layers of humor. The existence of God or otherwise is a subject that Kamal has often touched upon and so there is no way that this escaped anyone’s notice, especially with the debate between Kamal and Asin during the climax. The story itself is a warning about how funding research for biological weapons can be a dangerous game, there is an environmental message that Vincent Boovaragan raises, that of illegal sand quarrying and the movie at many places touches upon various ways in which the world is being self-detrimental; George Bush’s idea of the nuclear bomb being the panacea to all kinds of problems etc…..

But maybe the most profound of all messages is something that was so subtly said that it went unnoticed. Even if it was noticed it has gone without mention or discussion till now. One cannot be quite sure about whether Kamal, the scriptwriter, intended to give such a context. But it has happened and even if it is unwitting, this is an issue that is being considered by some of our country’s leading thinkers as something that demands immediate attention.

It takes place in the scene involving Balram Naidu (RAW) and Kalifulla Khan, when the latter is rounded up at his house with Christian Fletcher and Govind just having got away. The tall man is suspiciously surveyed by the RAW officer from top to bottom (that is a long way) and his connections to some of the world’s most notorious terrorists units is being assumed nonchalantly, the officer also issues orders for the entire street to be arrested and questioned for suspected terrorist links. Kalifulla Khan says ‘Why is it anyone and everyone who prays in a Dargah is looked upon as a terrorist?’ In the movie, this dialogue is greeted amidst laughter as all of Balram Naidu’s previous wisecracks are irresistibly funny, especially ‘Lighthouse’.

The message that the dialogue gives is straightforward: Why are Muslims suspected in the aftermath of any terrorist attack? India has suffered many incidents of bombing in the last few years and while the seriousness of these cannot be downplayed, there is widespread discontent over the way such cases are handled. This is not just a personal view, but an accumulation of views that have been appearing very regularly all over the country. It is a fact known to all that the hands behind the Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad and Jaipur blasts are yet to be cuffed but what we do not know is that hundreds of Muslim youth have been behind or are still behind bars for one fault- being a Muslim. ‘Conciliatory arrests’ are made immediately after any untoward incident to appease authorities and to assure the public that action is being taken, but who pays the price? It is not only in India that such incidents of an entire community being labeled as terrorists takes place: The whole world changed post 9/11. Yes, it is true that militant outfits that were behind all these heinous acts are all Islamic but that does not make every Muslim a terrorist.

There is no better man than Kamal to have given this message because he is a person who has experienced the tendency to view a Muslim suspiciously first hand. Remember the incident in Canada in 2002 when Kamal was held back at an airport? He had gone there to consult a make up artiste about his get-up in Anbey Sivam- he was sporting a beard and as airport authorities later explained, that made him look like a Muslim. If a thing as unimportant as a beard can get a person detained at an airport then imagine what religion can do. Maybe that incident formed the seed of this subtle message given by Kalifulla Khan. - behindwoods