Prime Video India’s original film ‘Bawaal’ continues to stir up more hornet’s nests as the days go by. It’s been almost ten days since the Varun Dhawan – Janhvi Kapoor film released on Prime Video. Ever since, more and more stakeholders have been weighing in on Bawaal’s controversial plot device of drawing parallels between a dysfunctional marriage and the horrors that took place at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the World War II Holocaust.
First it was film critics and audiences who took to social media to vent their displeasure with the outrageous, not to say insensitive, premise of Bawaal. Then it was organisations such as the Jewish Human Rights organisation Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) that voiced their ire at the movie’s banal depiction of the Holocaust. ”Auschwitz is not a metaphor”, they said, while slamming Nitesh Tiwari for having the protagonist declare that “Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz”, and thereby “trivializing and demeaning the memory of 6 million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler’s genocidal regime”.
Finally, Bawaal has now managed to create an international “bawaal”, with none other than the Israeli Embassy in India, as well as the Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon, expressing their hurt and displeasure at Bawaal’s poor choice of terminology. The Israeli Ambassador to India wrote on Twitter, “I did not and will not watch the film Bawaal but from what I’ve read, there was a poor choice of terminology and symbolism.
Trivialization of the Holocaust should disturb all.
I urge those who don’t know enough about the horrors of the #Holocaust to educate themselves about it.”
Earlier in the day, the Israeli Embassy in India posted similar sentiments on its official Twitter account –
“The Israeli embassy is disturbed by the trivialization of the significance of the Holocaust in the recent movie ‘Bawaal’.
There was a poor choice in the utilization of some terminology in the movie, and though we assume no malice was intended, we urge everyone who may not be fully aware of the horrors of the Holocaust to educate themselves about it.”
Amidst all of the controversy, some insensitive souls are gloating on Twitter that Israel has no right to say anything on the matter, all because Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid had termed ‘The Kashmir Files’ as a propaganda film at the IFFI 2023. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, they say.
We at Binged think that two wrongs do not make a right. While freedom of expression is of great value, especially in current times, a filmmaker of the stature of Nitesh Tiwari should definitely have given more consideration to the intense sentiment attached to the horrors of the Holocaust, not just by Jews, but by every human being in their right mind. The Holocaust, the horrors at Auschwitz and other concentration and extermination camps is the singular-most evil blot on the history of modern man.
By comparing the regular teething troubles of married life to the horrors of the Holocaust, the filmmaker has trivialised both – the Holocaust, as well as the sentiments of people around the world.
Bawaal deserves all the flak it is getting, for its insensitive depiction of the Holocaust; and the foolishness of its makers that audiences will accept the outlandish plot without a whimper.
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