The latest Bollywood movie ‘Bawal’ directed by Nitesh Tiwari starring Jahnvi Kapoor and Varun Dhawan has enraged the The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) by metamorphosing the worst human tragedy in history to a pity love affair. The movie focuses on the relationship journey of an arrogant History professor who is embarrassed by her wife’s epilepsy. The couple take a journey to Europe where their love for each other blooms and they connect their relationship commitments to the tragic past history of Germany. The SWC has been beseeching Amazon Prime to take down the movie, because the movie depicts, “outlandish abuse of the Nazi Holocaust as a plot device.”
The movie’s disturbing phrase used in the trailer has caught everyone’s eye, “Every love story has its own war,” depicting Kapoor and Dhawan’s character trapped in a gas chamber. The concentration camp is taken lightly, despite its tragic history, with Hitler orchestrating the death, starvation and murder of Jews from all across Europe in the camps. Some downward cliche dialogues are also spoken by Jahnvi in the trailer, “We’re all a little bit like Hitler, aren’t we?” At a particular point in the trailer, Kapoor’s character remarks.“We’re not happy with what we have. And we want what others have.” In another scene, she remarks, “Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz.” The Auschwitz camp was the brutal base of Hitler genocide. “Auschwitz is not a metaphor. It is the quintessential example of Man’s capacity for Evil,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action, issued an address.
CNN has also commented on Amazon on the romanticization of the worst phase in Germany’s history, “Nitesh Tiwari, trivializes and demeans the memory of 6 million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler’s genocidal regime.”
India’s most read and number one leading newspaper has called the film, “the most insensitive film of the year so far.” Shantanu Das, a film reviewer, complained in the newspaper about the film’s insensitivity.: “There’s a lot to register and process in the absolute mess that is Nitesh Tiwari’s Bawaal, but let’s start with something that strikes immediately: the audacity.”
The director of the film,Nitesh Tiwari has packed up some responses in favor of his film against the international backlash. He recently spoke on a press junket and admitted that ‘Bawaal’ was made with “love, care and good intentions.” He alas, thereby remarked, “I’m a bit disappointed with the way some people have comprehended it. That was never the intention. It would never be my intention to be insensitive.” Dhawan was critical of the critics and said, “Some people got triggered about this.But where does that sensitivity go when they watch an English film?”