Aman ki cultural asha

The singe at Uri seems to have hit namma ooru too with a Shafqat Amanat Ali concert standing cancelled. Now, the fraternity seems to be polarised in its support — whether to ban Pakistani artistes from working and performing in India or not.

As the situation borders on volatility, Bengaluru filmmaker Miriam Chandy Menacherry believes that at this time, dialogue and cultural exchange is more important than ever. “Sending artistes home and paralysing cultural exchange only sharpens the edge of violence,” she says.

Miriam is one of the directors of Lyari Notes, a cross-border documentary film that received rave reviews when it premiered recently at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). Incidentally, the plot revolves around a rock star in Pakistan who dares to teach a young group of girls from Lyari, Karachi’s most volatile district how to express themselves through music.

“Musicians and artistes create — they are the natural counterpoint to war. They are the moral compass that keeps our society committed to the cause of a greater humanity,” she opines, adding that the words of John Lennon’s bestselling single Imagine  rings most true to her at this time.

According to Sandalwood actor Chetan Kumar of the Aa Dinagalu fame, art and creativity transcend national boundaries. “But artistes whether Indian or Pakistani working anywhere in the world are neither inherently noble or ‘ambassadors of peace.’ Most often they come on business or employment visas, take money, and provide services,” he points out.

He believes that it is irrational to place blame on a citizen for the actions taken by anyone in their home country, whether it’s legal action or not. “If we do employ such logic, all Indian artistes should then be held accountable for socio-political transgressions such as the Nirbhaya rape, cow vigilantism, Gujarat pogrom, AFSPA in Northeast and Kashmir etc, which they are clearly not. It’s hypocritical for us or any other country to hold another nation’s artistes to standards we don’t place on our own,” says the actor who has been serving as a rural school instructor, in addition to working on women’s empowerment.

At a time when social media provides you with immense power to share what you think and ‘create’ news at the click of a button, it’s possibly best to remember that with great power comes great responsibility.

“If I’m not mistaken, Fawad Khan’s so-called statement, which appear to have caused a lot of uproar, seems to have been completely fabricated. I don’t blame people for not triple-verifying the facts because we’re still suffering from the hangover of the good old days where it was just the media’s job. But we should know better than to keep having these knee-jerk reactions to everything, only to look like complete fools after the truth comes out,” adds Bengaluru band Peepal Tree’s guitarist and vocalist, Tony Das.