The film “The Kerala Story” has sparked a debate around Islamic conversions and indoctrination. Although, the film spreads awareness about the menace of love jihad and the subsequent deployment of converted victim women to ISIS, a section of people have been claiming that the film spreads hatred against Muslims. Amidst the ongoing debate, actress Ameesha Patel who will soon be seen in the film “Gadar 2: The Katha Continues”—the sequel of the iconic cult classic “Gadar” alongside actor Sunny Deol has said Gadar is a movie that spread only ‘love and no hatred’ and brought all religions and castes together.

Ameesha Patel went on to claim that the film’s female lead character—a Pakistani married an Indian Hindu man and still followed Islam and the Hindu protagonist accepted Islam.

“Gadar is a movie that never ever spread hatred, it only spread love and united all religions and castes. There is no bigger film than Gadar which shows that a Pakistani Muslim girl Sakina marries an Indian Hindu Tara Singh portrayed by Sunny Deol and still she did not forget Islam in fact Tara Singh accepts Islam. So think, films like Gadar bolster unity and teach us that we should live together,” Ameesha said.

This is essentially quite a delusional comment by actress Ameesha Patel and it only displays the staggering ignorance that the elite in India suffer from.

In the movie, Ashraf Ali, played by veteran actor Amreesh Puri, proposes two conditions to Tara Singh, who had arrived at his wife Sakina’s residence in Pakistan to take her back, in order for him to accept their union. The first is that Tara Singh will convert to Islam, and the second is that he will stay in Pakistan forever. He gives Tara Singh some time to make a decision.

“Tumhe humari do shartein manani hongi, pehli, ke tumhe Islam qubool karna hoga (you will have to fulfil two conditions, first that you will accept Islam). Aur doosri shart, tumhe yahin Pakistan mein rehna hoga. (Second condition that you will stay here in Pakistan),” Ashraf Ali tells Tara Singh.

The next day, the film shows that a large crowd has gathered to witness an Indian non-Muslim convert to Islam. A maulvi asks Tara Singh if he is ready to accept Islam “Kya tumhe Islam qubool hai”, the Maulvi questions. To this Tara Singh replies a man’s biggest “mazhab” is to protect his wife and children. An agitated maulvi repeats his question, to which Tara says “Kaaba and Kashi are one and the same”. The maulvi loses his cool and again asks “Kya tummy Islam qubool hai” To this, Tara Singh clearly says “Qubool hai”.

As the maulvi then invites Tara Singh to enter the mosque for the commencement of further ritual to make him a ‘Muslim’, Ashraf Ali intervenes and forces Tara to raise Islam zindabad and Pakistan zindabad slogans, which Tara raises. However, Ashraf Ali then asks Tara to raise the Hindustan Murdabad slogan, to which Tara reacts in an aggressive tone calling out Ashraf Ali’s name and saying, “Hindustan zindabad tha hai or rahega (Hindustan was, is and shall remain zindabad)”. Following this, the Pakistani crowd rushes to attack Tara, and then comes the iconic handpump uprooting scene.

First and foremost, this suggests that although Tara Singh did say “Qubool hai” to protect his family, he did not perform the mandatory rituals for converting to Islam such as reciting the kalma and giving shahada.

Secondly, it is interesting to note that actress Ameesha Patel said that the film gives the message of unity and love as a Muslim girl Sakina marries a Hindu man but still practices her religion while her non-Muslim husband accepts her religion. Inadvertently, Patel’s understanding of ‘love and unity’ is similar to that of Islamists who opine that Muslims should not marry a non-Muslim (kafir) until he/she becomes a believer (Muslim).

In this entire scene, which Ameesha chooses to call an example of “love and unity”, we see several elements that go against the idea that Ameesha seems to be espousing, perhaps because she does not remember how the movie goes or because she is delusional.

1. It is the non-Muslim who had to convert to Islam for their “love” to be acceptable. Not the other way around. The non-Muslim imposed no such requirement for the Muslim woman to convert to Hinduism. If it indeed this was a message of love and harmony, then none of the two should have had to convert. That religious conversion is an essential part of Islam itself is antithetical to the notions of all religions being equal and this being an example of love and unity.
2. While the non-Muslim wanted to further tropes like Kaaba and Kashi being the same, these notions were clearly not acceptable to the Muslims in the scene. Perhaps the delusions harboured by Tara Singh in reel are also harboured by Ameesha in real life.
3. Islamic supremacy was clearly visible and depicted in the movie when all the Muslims gather to watch the conversion of non-Muslims. Ameesha perhaps must explain how this became an example of unity.
4. The very basic tenet of Pakistan being a supremacist state on the basis of a religious supremacy ideology is also evident.

This comment by Ameesha Patel yet again proves that most Bollywood starlets are rather divorced from reality and perhaps, Patel must read up more and understand ground realities before making misplaced comments about brotherhood, secularism love and harmony.