Listening to a old Hindi Bollywood song ‘Mennu ishq da lagya rog – Dil hai ki manta nahi ‘ on a long drive back to Trivandrum – I told Anil ‘ Do you know this movie is copy of Roman Holidays -1950’s Hollywood movie ?’ And Anil said , that he is not surprised … And then I started off raving about Gregory Peck the Hero of this movie – About the character and the realistic ending the movie had .
Realistic – That is what I would associate Gregory Peck with – ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ that is the first movie I saw of Gregory Peck , and I saw the movie after reading the book. Movie was very close to the book and showed the American social set up of then 1930’s. ‘The primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence.Harper Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice.’
What I realized after reading the book was the Development USA made both in terms of Economical and Human / Sociological through all these years, not that everything is absolutely perfect in that country, but it is one of the most Developed countries in the world. I don’t know much about the History of the USA but my limited knowledge is that there were indigenous people and these groups are generally believed to have been isolated from peoples of the "Old World" until the coming of Europeans in the 10th century from Norway and with the Voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492. There were oppression, suppression, natives were chased out or killed, or they surrendered, but now as a country with all the differences(race, beliefs, regions); they are one and work together for the Development of the country. For thousands of people from other countries of the world, USA along with few other Developed countries - is one country of ‘Hope and opportunities’ …. And then I think of the small baby step India has been making towards development since 1940’s, and now the focus is all about ‘Going back to Culture and Tradition’ than being a ‘Developed Nation’.
Now let me come back to Gregory Peck , Hollywood and Bollywood … The next Peck movie I saw was “Roman Holiday” very light hearted romantic movie which had a very realistic ending . Again parts of the movie were shot on locations around Rome of 1950’s – in 50-60 years the country and people has changed – India (Bollywood) takes ‘Inspiration’ from the old movie and gives it a fascinating fairy tale story ending, but never gets inspired to see how things have changed in the life and country of the people who were portrayed in the Original English movie …. Instead we take credit and feel proud of our glorious History and culture and blame the Conquers and emperors and British for all the caste/religion/region divisions… and then happily sing and take pride ‘Phir bhi Dil hai Hidustani’ & ‘ India Wale’ ….
The book To Kill a Mockingbird is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die". On the other hand in India we have now school Textbooks written by people who are guided more by their personal beliefs/fantasies than actual fact, books which are and I quote ‘not historically correct but are hilarious and scary ‘ .. I can only hope that people in India get inspired by good (Indian) books and can ensue that the children understand and are sensitized to differences (of all kinds) around ...
PS :italics text reference taken from Wiki.
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