Return Of The 8th Century

Men step back! You no longer need to work hard to suppress women; women would do the needful.

If the recent statement by Salwa al-Mutairi (Daily Mail) is anything to go by, men would be allowed to buy and keep sex slaves. And if that is not enough for you to raise an eyebrow, then she makes sure to mention that women prisoners would make ideal concubines.

In the present time and age when women globally continue to fight for their rights, such suggestions leave little ground for  any demands or claims. 

But before men appear too happy by this declaration, it needs to be clarified that her suggestion is limited to the 'needs' of Muslim men and, thus, concubines can only be non-Muslim prisoners of war.

It is her idea that 'decent' Muslim men, overpowered by desires, should keep concubines and, thus, avoid fornication. This sounds similar to the argument that men can go to whore-houses to fulfill their desires. In support of her argument she cites the example of an eight century Muslim leader who had approximately 2000 concubines. Salwa al-Mutairi forgets that we are in the 21st century and polygamy is no longer legal.

History is filled with examples of leaders, kings and landlords who enjoyed the company of more than one woman. However, if one digs deeper, one would realize that not all women enjoyed the same amount of respect and hospitality from the man in question. More often than not they were showered with gifts till they could serve as a sexual object and later discarded like an old rag.

Also, her suggestion of using non-Muslim women for the purpose clearly points out her point of view regarding respect for women in general. Her views reek of orthodox dogmas whereby religion is larger than humanity. Salwa al-Mutairi, along with her views, sounds like a blast from the past where religious differences were larger than human integrity.

Some non-Muslim state needs to take her as a prisoner and legalize her suggestion, whereby she is sold-off as a sexual object. And then, maybe just then, would she realize that a man's sexual virility is no reason for a woman to become an object restricted to the bedchambers.

Lootera: The Last Leaf - O'Henry Finds A Backstory!

Lootera is partially based on O'Henry's short story, The Last Leaf. Partially, not because, it takes elements from the original and builds a story around it. But, because, the second-half of the movie is the short story itself.

Lootera is a lose attempt to integrate O'Henry's short story with a Bollywood pot-boiler about a thief and his love interest. Curious because in the attempt, the two halves of the movie look like two different short films that could be independent of each other. The only thing making them one film is the lead cast - Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha.

Unfortunately, the focus is so concentrated on the lead cast that the rest of the cast appear as nothing more than props. They enter and exit the stage merely to give these two people more things to brood or fight about.

Lootera could have been a good attempt; different from the regular Bollywood drama. But stuck between an attempt to be out of the ordinary and an adaptation, it becomes a long drag with minutes passing without much of the story progressing.

What could have been a human story ends being 2.5 hours of moving around in circles in an attempt to reach O'Henry's The Last Leaf.