MyVoice: Views of our readers 24th October 2025

Hindi cinema under grip of communal warfare

Sir, apropos of ‘communalism and ‘secular’ Hindi cinema (Hans India; October 23, 2025). The recent distasteful bad blood that was spilled between lyricist Javed Akhtar and singer Lucky Ali and of Shah Rukh Khan sporting a tika, while wishing his fans on Diwali, showcases the extent to which communalism has infiltrated Bollywood.

It is unbelievable that it is the same industry that churned out blockbusters like Amar, Akbar, Antony, and Satyam Shivam Sundaram, which upheld secularism in the real sense, and also had a Muslim Mohammed Rafi, Hindu Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, of Konkani heritage who had, and continues to have music lovers spellbound. Bollywood currently has people like Boman Irani, a Parsi actively involved. These show that Bollywood had withstood the cancer of communalism when others couldn’t. But fissures have begun to show, much to the fans’ frustration and disillusionment.

Dr George Jacob, Kochi

II

This refers to your editorial ‘Communalism and ‘Secular’ Hindi cinema’. Cine goers of yesteryears had enjoyed Bollywood films as an escape from mundane life, and with an attempt to relive the couple of hours of movie watching in the fantasy world of their own. Elaborate stories involving emotional melodrama added to the interest and enthusiasm of the audiences then. The communal and secular aspects barely posed any hint of suspicion on the audiences. But, the pattern was unmissable for critical eyes.

The script writers and film producers hailed from a particular community. However, a handful of level-headed film productions like Rajshri Productions, G P Sippy and other banners like BR Chopra, had their story lines cut out to cater to the viewers of all categories. The era when the mafia took over Bollywood production under Dawood Ibrahim, could produce films on a mammoth scale and budget which were hits too. The communal bias and element in films is more visible in the present times, when more critical eyes are in play.

K R Venkata Narasimhan, Madurai

Only cash counts in cinema

Cinema is mere entertainment business and money is language of this business. It has fantasies of drama , emotions ( love- hate , revenge ), illusions, actions with occasional tempering of patriotism and cine-crazy crowds queue up to watch and discuss/ debate on new release.(Ref:”Communalism and secular Hindi Cinema”, Oct 23). It all boils down to a pivot of “box office money collection”.

So whatever actors do barring few exceptions is always to keep themselves in centre of media attraction which spins money around. It is myth that cinema would bring social reforms or paradigm shift in social order.

Buddha Jagdish Rao, Visakhapatnam

Reality check for Indian ODI cricket team

Indian cricket team touring down under faced back to back defeats despite having Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The much hyped side faced 7- wicket and 2-wicket defeats respectively and the third one at Sydney is a simply a formality. Over confidence and complacency let the team down.

The spin-pace combination failed to yield desired result. The batsmen tried to come to form and wasted time in making quick runs. Kohli was a dismal failure in both the matches and needs to be asked quit the game. It was indeed a great loss before the ODI World Cup.

M R Jayanthi, Coimbatore

Takaichi bodes well for Japan

Takaichi created history not only as first woman PM of Japan but also as a unique - daring woman. She remarried (in 2021) to her (same) divorced husband (in 2017). Also, her husband took her sur name Takaichi to his name Taku Yamamoto.

That’s double bonus - adventurous - daring too. She has seen - dared many ups and downs in life and can easily handle any crisis with harmony and joyful success solutions. She is a woman full of progressive vigour and is expected to cruise Japan to peace, prosperity and excellent health too.

P V P Madhu Nivriti, Secunderabad