I have watched phil-ums that made me want to gouge out my eyes with hot forks of displeasure, but I’ve never felt homicidal because of celluloid. According to my beloved Beeb, I OBVIOUSLY have nothing in common with Somali militia men:
Calm has returned to the Somali capital Mogadishu after 11 people were killed and 20 wounded in weekend fighting.
The clashes pitted militia belonging to the Islamic courts against owners of cinemas showing dubbed Bollywood films.
Obviously this horrible violence has nothing to do with the quality of a flick, but an extreme culture war over the qualities of the films and the activities related to them:
The Islamic courts have been attempting to control the activities of the cinemas – accusing them of fuelling crime, drug abuse and immorality.
Somalia has essentially been lawless for 14 years. What’s a little more immorality on top of THAT?
Last month, the court’s militia stormed a studio where Bollywood films were being translated and destroyed equipment.
I’m not quite sure what the honorable chairman from the state of fundamentalism means by the following quote:
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairman of the Islamic courts, says they open from early in the morning showing “scandalous movies to children even not allowed by producers in their home country”.
First and last of all, what scandal? The flouncing around gardens, peeking out from trees, getting close enough to sniff your dance partner but not kissing them even though the cut to a flower blooming might suggest exactly such fornication? Sheikh, please.
Anna
That was ROFL!!!!
(Waiting for the elusive Sheikh to respond to that astutue question with bated breath)
Sumita
Good God. Explicit, uncensored, hardcore three-way desi action, right here on Sepia Mutiny.
shaking head Tauba tauba tauba…..
“Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the chairman of the Islamic courts, says they open from early in the morning showing “scandalous movies to children even not allowed by producers in their home country”.
last time i checked bollywood movies are allowed to be watched in india and its kind of a family outing sort of thing to go and see the latest bollywood flick
Maybe they’re talking about the non-veg variety such as Murder, Jism, along with the kind with more risque item numbers like Kaante, Musafir, and so on.
Although even family-orientated films like K3G and Kal Ho Na Ho had songs with a mild degree of booty-shaking in them, so I guess such movies would be offensive to those with a very orthodox and conservative view of life (like some of the mullahs and their supporters).
*risque item numbers like Kaante, Musafir, and so on.
Sorry, typo again — should have said “…risque item numbers in films like Kaante, Musafir etc”
I guess the double bill of buxom Bollywood babes and khat clouded brains to absorb.
Maybe the sheikh has a point. Hell, I wouldn’t allow Karina Kapoor’s twittering to It’s Raining Men in K3G in my country.
I have to agree with those militant dudes. I had the same feelings go through my head after watching “Roop ki Rani, Choron ka Raja” in the early 90s.
A few weeks ago a related news report was blogged on The Acorn; what I wrote there is applicable here too:
“IÂ’m of the inclination that ideologies like the one on display in Somalia in this instance fully realize that Bollywood has a subversive potential (given the “official” ideologies in play)– witness Pakistan, where everyone who can get their hands on a video/VCD/DVD watches Hindi films, yet the government wonÂ’t allow them in the theaters (with the result that Hindi film-viewing is consigned to upper-middle class and affluent viewers). They are right to be scared: traditionally (a tradition contemporary Hindi filmmakers seem determined to slight for the most part), Bollywood cinema, with its divas, item numbers, sati savitris, kindly and sick gangsters, pelvic thrusts, loathsome politicians, copiously teared mothers, honest and corrupt cops, wet sari sequences, every-Muslim-is-a-Shiite-when-dying worldview, and sheer ADDICTIVENESS, can potentially overflow and exceed the rigid borderlines set up by the identity police. What could be more threatening to the minders of the pure and the impure?”
Don’t watch pirated Bollywood movies on cruise ships near Somalia.
Anna said…
Well… you never know… it is apparently common practice for theaters to insert strips of random porn in obscure regional films to sate the local horndogs… and no… I was just killing time that afternoon in tiruchirappali …
hmmm… what’s that music I hear in the background – “lungi ke neechay kya hai” or “what’s that under the lungi”
Re: comment 11: Apparently this is also what underlies the etymology of the Punjabi colloquialism “totay” for pornos (“totay” meaning bits/snippets etc.)…
Right movies are totally dangerous. Chewing Khat all day long getting a fix is all good, ya know. It only makes you craz.. um, stronger.
.
B4U has had to be switched off in our household since I unthinking emphasised the importance not running around naked to the auntie jr and uncle jr. However ever since then they’ve turned into a pint sized version of the religious policeman screaming shame shame auntie when a buxom bollywood babe is shaking her…. well you get the idea..
Lol
What I really dig about this piece is that there was a ANTI-censorship milita. We need to take the advise of Lou Reed and form a Liberal Militia.
The analysis and the responses are shallow. The conflict between capitalism and traditionalism needs to be better understood if we want to live in a world with less conflict.
Neo-orthodox religious fundamentalists are not traditionalists.
Bollywood movies have been corrupting Somaila for decades without any problems.
conflict can be good. would makeup sex exist without conflict? exactly. how’s THAT for profound.
Surely it does, but isn’t it a bit much to assume that the Islamist militias represent Somali tradition? Even if they do, why should they be accepted as the only representatives of Somali tradition? Consider the Afghan example: that a society has traditionally been very conservative Muslim (as far as the Pashtun are concerned) does not by itself suffice to show that the Taliban were not a radical innovation.
As epoch says there nothing traditional about the new ideological Islam nor Hindutva etc.
This story is a interesting example of a neglected aspect of globalism, the spread of ideologies and dominant ideas from Non-Western Countries.
What you have here is not the clash between trad vs captialist cultures, but between the exporting the ideas and morales of middle class India spread via movies versus the ideology of Wahhihism version of Islam spread by Saudi petro-dollars.
Uncleji,
Nice to have you back Sir 😉
I’m not sure if the ideas being exported are necessarily “middle class” Indian — the meaning of the term with regards to that sector of society back in the subcontinent is different to what it means here in merry ol’ Ingerlaanda. From what I understand, the “middle class” in India refers to some fairly conservative sections which used to be depicted in a hell of a lot of parallel-cinema “arty” movies in the 80s (the kind often starring Farrukh Sheikh, Vinod Mehra, Amol Palekar, sometimes also Naseeruddhin Shah, Jeetendra, Jaya Prada etc).
Given the blockbuster nature of many of today’s most successful Hindi films, perhaps a more accurate description of the values depicted would be those supposedly prevalent in the very wealthy urban elite. I don’t know how accurately the average club-based item number music video reflects the rest of Indian society 😉
However, you are completely correct about the export of Wahabbism (it seems have infiltrated a lot of UK-based mosques and is apparently why many disaffected 2nd-Generation Muslims here are rejecting the subcontinent-version of Islam as “too liberal” and not a true interpretation of the faith. Also why you see a lot more burqas and hijabs around here these days).
You’re also right about B4U these days ! (Er, not that I’m complaining…..)
I’m just waiting for some Islamic newspaper to visit this site, steal some quotes like #7 and #8, mis-attribute them and say “See? Even the Indians agree!” 😉
As for kiddies seeing the filims, I was on a shoot yesterday where these 11-15yos did their own version of a Bolly dance. The 11-yo girl picked “Kajra Re” to reinterpret, which seriously disturbed our presenter, as apparently the original is about a bar dancer/pseudo-prostitute/whatever. Hmmmm.
conflict can be good. would makeup sex exist without conflict? exactly. how’s THAT for profound.
As one of my best friends (one who I didn’t speak to / who didn’t speak to me for a year after a series of huge disagreements) rightly pointed out, what are same-sex friends supposed to do after massive arguments? There’s no tension release or pretending like everything’s OK by humping.
Folks,
This is Somalia… what do you expect?
Just curious: Are Bollywood movies screened in Saudi?
M. Nam
I can’t speak for Saudi Arabia but I do know they used to be very popular in Afghanistan. When I was at university about a decade ago I was friends with a guy who’d migrated from there a few years previously, and I remember him telling me that he (and plenty of other people in that country) had even managed to learn how to understand Hindi just from watching so many Bollywood movies when he was “back home”.
I suspect things were probably slightly different after the Taliban came to power.
Hindi films are apparently very popular in Egypt too.
There are no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia; B’wood movies are screened in other countries in the region: Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain…
Folks, Apologies for going off-topic but: due to unforeseen issues I’ll be taking an indefinite break from haunting these comment threads. Wishing all of you the best!
(Check my blog out from time to time)…
I was going to post from my neigbourhood internet cafe but after viewing the history tab, suddenly realised that there was a reason why the keys were so sticky…………..eeeeeeeeeeeeeee
And Russia etc as previously on SM
Umair,
It’s been great talking to you on SM, bro. Hope you’re doing okay, and please try to drop by here when you can.
Wishing you all the very best for the future 😉
Warm regards, Jai
Thanks Jai– likewise…when am next in the UK will try and drop by SM to give you a shout…
Umair: you’ll be missed dude. All the best
good luck Umair, hope everything is ok with you
Umair,
you are a good man, and very well-read, i have your blog on my favorites list on my blog.
Umair, wish you the best for whatever is next and hope you return soon.
hey peeps. wut up?
Hi there it s me Ali i see nice grils i never see
Thanks
Hey guys,
I am from Somalia but now living in Canada for the past 15 years. I remember watching Hindi movies when I was a kid. Hindi movies were very popular in Somalia. We also had Italian cinemas that were not as popular. My cousin spoke very good Hindi from watching Hindi movies. I think Hindi movies are very popular in many other African countries. They are cheap to produce and cost nothing to run them on local cinemas once you buy a copy. Now seeing real Indians, I don’t know if I want to watch Indian movies anymore. I prefer hollywood. It was different growing up and having access to only Indian movies.
my email is for mms clip send
I just think the militia are trying to promote online piracy across the country…these people still livein 700 A.D. and are not aware about internet…I pity them!