All spiritual organisations, individual Guru’s and ashrams in India normally print their brochures, pamphlets, lecture excerpts and list of programs/social works undertaken as their publicity material to influence more devotees or followers. At the most they all come up with regularly updated websites going with the new-age trends to reach the young minds more active on the social networks.
But moving far ahead of that routine, outdated practice, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan, the self-proclaimed Avtaar sent on earth to save the humanity boldly releases a complete 3 hour film as the audio-visual publicity brochure of his works in Sirsa Ashram and tries to win many more followers all over India quite cleverly.
As expected and projected in its promotional campaign, the film is entirely made on and about one man alone with his name coming up in almost every department in the opening titles. And then further is introduced as a multi-faceted personality who is a spiritual orator, singer, rapper, writer, lyricist, director, music director, art director, action director, choreographer, players of several games, inventor of a new game called “Gulstick”, an active social worker and the enemy of the drug mafia responsible of ruining their trade due to his result oriented initiatives started against drug addiction in the region.
But WAIT, there is a trap here……..! Guruji or Pitaji as Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan is lovingly addressed by his devotees has actually released this film as a world-wide promotional campaign of his DERA in Sirsa. And every viewer/reviewer/interviewer or channel writing or airing about the movie in details would be in turn contributing in his promotional campaign only unintentionally.
So if the movie had been on his life-story of how he became the Guru, how he got spiritually enlightened and how he managed to gain so many followers in the gone decades, I would have surely reviewed it as a film-project in details. But since it talks about nothing in that respect, I refuse to be a part of this cleverly planned promotion campaign and instead of writing more on the film, would like to tell you something important about these DERAS widely active in Punjab and its adjacent regions.
A. We as humans basically are looking for a personal warmth, a personal assurance and a personal touch from a superior blessed soul always, who can look into our problematic issues offering a one to one personal advice or help. Now this intimate dialogue can actually be also discovered while reading the various divine scriptures with the right understanding and devotion exploring the self.
But since the custodians/preachers of our precious GEETA, BIBLE, QURAN and GURU GRANTH SAHIB are unable to present/explain the scriptures in a much evolved way to the seekers; they all fail to impress the innocent souls due to their own ignored inability. As a result the people looking for help find themselves on the doors of these self-proclaimed avatars who confidently pose to become the mediators between them and the GOD coming up with some instant solutions.
So every success of these widely appreciated and supported Deras actually denotes the failure of our Temples, Churches, Mosques and Gurdwaras quite openly. And one has to accept this blunt truth with a bit of shame at the earliest.
B. Secondly, praising the worth-noticing noble social acts of such DERAS who visibly organize food for the poor, medical for the diseased, marriages for the poor girls, job for the unemployed and home for the old aged parents thrown out of the home by their evil children, I would like to accept that these DERAS actually do a lot better than the government in their areas looking after the local people around. (Also visible in the film with thousands of devotes participating in the songs and other sequences making a record.)
So becoming the second evident truth, every success of these Deras actually denotes the failure of the Government agencies in that region too that remain unable to connect and help the needy locals as per their official duties and responsibilities.
Returning to MSG – THE MESSENGER as a creative product, suppose a person has got a lot of money to spare and now wishes to make a movie to project himself as a Hero. Now even if he ropes in a highly professional team from Mumbai, the product he will make will actually depend upon the inner circle around him as advisors, friends and close associates giving the major inputs for the product, which in this case seem to be all incompetent ‘Yes-men’ having no voice of their own in terms of creativity.
Having said that they all still have one smart consensus, when it comes to the portrayal of Drug Mafia in the film………… as they questionably don’t showcase any politician in any scene dealing with the Drug business. And for those who know the current Punjab well, this indeed was a very crafty move avoiding many further controversies and sour relationships skipping the harsh ground truth.
In the end,
For friends who are looking forward to enjoy it like many other trashy movies!
You might not enjoy the film hugely against all expectations since it too seriously remains involved in its own mission of propagating about the DERA. There are not too many characters or unintentional comic sequences you might be willing to see and only the 7-8 full length songs are the ones giving you that iconic entertainment and enjoyment.
For friends opposing the film on religious grounds!
There is not even a single scene or dialogue hurting any religious sentiment of any particular religion in its entire 3 hours duration. So kindly find some time to at least see the film first before playing in the hands of few powerful minds at the top using you for their own political benefits.
It’s a film purely made as a Dera advertisement and nothing to do with any religion whatsoever. But in case you are protesting against the self-proclaimed Avtaari Sant (saint) only as a social cause then that’s an entirely different thing which still has nothing to do with any specific religion to say the truth.
Then why it was opposed so strongly by the Censor Board? (Released after a change in title that earlier was MSG MESSENGER OF GOD)
As I feel they opposed the film for only one reason....which was about a self-proclaimed Sant (Saint) making several (impossible) miracles and trying to present himself as a God sent Avtaar (reincarnation) that might be able to convince many innocent, uneducated (and even educated) minds through the strong, effective medium of a feature film.
So they must have objected to the wrong presentation of miracles (superstition) and the reincarnation absurdity in its theme which actually can be stated as the right thing to do as a concerned government institution fulfilling its social responsibility.
And regarding giving it a chance………….it entirely depends upon your personal choice of entertainment, whereas for the followers its sure going to be treat like never before.
Rating : It’s an advertisement document and not a movie which despite severe criticism, scores on the social level for all its noble works done for the poor and the needy.
