Việc loại bỏ các chương trình phim Netflix cho thấy sự nâng cao quyền lực của Cánh hữu Hindu ở Ấn Độ

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The trailer for “Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food” promised a sunny if melodramatic (kịch tính, khoang trương) story of uplift (thăng hoa) in a south Indian temple town. A priest’s daughter enters a cooking tournament, but social obstacles (trở ngại) complicate her inevitable (không thể tránh khỏi) rise to the top. Annapoorani’s father, a Brahmin sitting at the top of Hindu society’s caste ladder, doesn’t want her to cook meat, a taboo (điều cấm kỵ) in their lineage. There is even the hint of a Hindu-Muslim romantic subplot (tình tiết phụ).

On Thursday, two weeks after the movie premiered, Netflix abruptly (đột ngột) pulled it from its platform. An activist, Ramesh Solanki, a self-described “very proud Hindu Indian nationalist,” had filed a police complaint arguing that the film was “intentionally released to hurt Hindu sentiments (kiêu hãnh).” He said it mocked Hinduism by “depicting (miêu tả) our gods consuming nonvegetarian food.”

The production studio quickly responded with an abject letter to a right-wing group linked to the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apologizing for having “hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus and Brahmins community.” The movie was soon removed from Netflix both in India and around the world, demonstrating the newfound (mới xuất hiện) power of Hindu nationalists to affect how Indian society is depicted (miêu tả) on the screen.

Nilesh Krishnaa, the movie’s writer and director, tried to anticipate the possibility of offending some of his fellow Indians. Food, Brahminical customs and especially Hindu-Muslim relations are all part of a third rail (tuyến đường sắt) that has grown more powerfully electrified (điện khí hóa) during Mr. Modi’s decade in power. But, Mr. Krishnaa told an Indian newspaper in November, “if there was something disturbing communal (cộng đồng) harmony in the film, the censor board would not have allowed it.”

source: nytimes,