As defined within Western woke, liberal circles, cultural appropriation is adoption of elements of one culture by another when they have been at conflict. The Razia songs in the form of Hindu eulogies can be considered as prime examples of “cultural appropriation”. If that is the case, let us talk about deceit then.ĭeceit 1: Presenting “cultural appropriation” as cultural assimilation What if you realize that the issue at hand is not really about money-making or cultural sensitivity but rather of deceit. Some will argue that understanding the impact of Islamic colonial rule over India requires a lot of cultural sensitivity – just don’t expect Bollywoodians to have the intellect to dig deep into sensitive topics. We do not know what songs were sung in Razia’s court during her times, but her Bollywoodian eulogy from Hindu gods and goddesses in clearly problematic.īollywood apologist will tell you that it is a money-making industry, giving escape to poor Indians from their real, tough lives – just don’t think too much into Bollywood and just enjoy the song, the dance, and the melodrama. These standing buildings are historical specimens for which one does not have to rely on the analysis of famous historians or Bollywood to educate us what did happen and what did not happen in those times. Most of the Islamic architecture from that period in Northern India is built on destroyed Hindu and Jain temples. The songs become a problem when you realize that Razia’s dynasty – and quite likely Razia, herself too – was quite busy destroying Hindu temples and Hindu culture during their rule. The songs use Hindu gods and goddesses to eulogize Razia which some may argue is also not a problem. To the uninitiated or to non-Hindi readers, the songs eulogize Razia which is not really a problem. Sample the lyrics below from song “hariyala banna aaya re” on the occasion of Razia’s impending wedding – However, more telling are the other tracks. I have heard and knew the most famous track – “ae dil-e-nadaan”. Its strongest point is really its soundtrack.
HARIYALA BANNA AAYA RE RAZIA SULTAN MOVIE
The movie is actually a bore with incomprehensible urdu dialogues. The makers did not apparently claim that the movie is historically accurate and the artistic liberties they took tell us more about Bollywoodians than about Razia. We also get to peep into the Sultanate harems – I got more interesting details of harems from an Iraqi colleague who described the ones Saddam & Sons had. There are melancholic elements to the presentation with lovers yearning for each other and their dealings with race issues of the times.
On the surface, it is a love-story between a Turkic princess and a black slave during the times of Delhi sultanate in thirteen century. After doing it for the last year or so, I came to the realization that Bollywood output have been consistently “shitty” over several decades (just don’t blame the 80’s and 90’s) – fares that were mind blowing in my recollection are actually naught in reality.Ĭoming back to Razia Sultan, the movie itself was released in 1983, took around 8 years to make, and was a box office disaster.
HARIYALA BANNA AAYA RE RAZIA SULTAN FREE
Covid has made a lot of free time available to folks and one of the productive uses of free time is watching Bollywood movies. I had seen the movie as a teenager when it was telecast on Doordarshan in late 80’s/early 90’s and I clearly remembered a few scenes from the movie that a boy in his teens should – more on that later. I recently on a whim (re)watched “Razia Sultan” movie.