Malik; Anti-Bahujan and unethical work of art
Malayalam movies are widely watched and appreciated worldwide. Hence, the narratives that they create are important, particularly when the stories are around communities that are powerless, underprivileged and at the receiving end of multiple violence. The privilege of the upper caste directors is that they can make movies taking from real life stories and then show what they want without any ethics in the shadow of” work of art” or “work of fiction”.
The new movie Malik is a new example of Islamophobic, anti-bahujan and unethical work of art. The state sponsored firing is shown as a communal violence and the Muslim male character become the villain where in fact the Kerala Police fired and killed 6 Muslims and around 30 people were injured.
The left ruled government headed by V S Achuthanandan, then Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had themselves said that the police had made a mistake in Beemapally. But movie don’t talk about any of these and whole story revolves around an imaginary Muslim male villain character. It’s also important that the people who live in these regions are converted lower caste Muslims. Hence, the Malik become another violence on them.
_ Ajmal Khan
