MisterrSingh

Have many of us - including myself here - jumped the gun without watching the film, lol?

I'm curious to see it now. If it's as decent as reported, then that's cool.

Note to self: Must stop being whipped up into a fervour by the mob, haha! Jokes aside, let's see what the general consensus is for this film. I'm still against depiction of Guru Sahibs though. I'll need some convincing on that front, that's for sure.

The clamour from the "liberal" voices amongst Sikhs, making wrongs into rights according to their own agenda, is a worrying thing for the future. It's as if maryada has no purpose. Madness.

Well it's time we get back our physical, spiritual and intellectual spheres.

To the library!

Same bodyguards as Mr Dhadriwal, who also appeared on the scene as a youth. Family business perhaps?

Hmmm. I knew the style of "sermon" delivery seemed familiar. Although I honestly can't tell if the circled Singh's are the same person. Seems like a cynical and calculating thing to do, doesn't it? Almost like expanding the franchise? Or preparing for someone to inherit the "gaddi" one day in the distant future.

One wonders where exactly does someone like Sikka get 35 crores to invest in this movie , plus Modi seems to have been very helpful too ... the English translations of shabads are off in trailers and posters , the visualisation of gagan mein thaal has made it into a happy clappy outdoors aarti party for hindus... so sad

Hmmm. Sounds a bit fishy.

It's very sad when the gentlemen performing kirtan on stage have to raise their voice to be heard, play the harmonium with more force, and strike the tabla harder in order to drown out the chatter of the sangat, even though they've got powerful microphones in front of them. That's an indictment on the sangat and incredibly embarrassing.

So when the sevadaar does bhog of langar with a kirpan that's not allowed? or have I missed something?

Is there an election coming up soon?

Mhmmm! Hopefully they change one day. I have some relatives who were 'mona', and they ate meat/cut hair etc. Whenever one of them would get diagnosed with a life threatening disease, they'd take Sri Amrit, and then they'd stop keeping rehat when they get better lol. I have this certain relative who has had this happen 2 times now, once about 10 years ago she did this, and it happened again and she did the same thing, but I don't know if she will get rid of rehat, since whenever we visit her she has the 5ks etc. I'm sure a lot of people have done this in the past. ):

People actually do that?! That's madness. If you've taken Amrit at a time of personal turmoil, then at least have the good grace to see it through when you're blessed with good health, and thank Maharaj for being gracious enough to help you out. Mental.

I agree with you. Anything can happen. Then again, I was only talking about the people I know, not really everyone in the world.

Yeah, fair play. Some of the people in our lives are infuriating though, lol. They seem incapable of change. But there's always hope I suppose.

All paths of bhagti lead to the same destination Akal Purakh nothing else , the rest of the things we do as humans just leads to the continuation of our own suffering so that's the side of the axiom of Guru ji . Most of the people who are drooling over this movie are like Sikka not very knowledgable about any of the sakhis or sikhi so will be ecstatic that they are learning something but most of the important points have been glossed over or left out to placate Modi and Muslims , so they will feel what was so special about the Gurus ...isn't that a dangerous precedent? Plus a lot of the iconography is semitic (arms up praying, hands up praying, talking in the hills like Jesus ) why? unless the agenda is to give credence that Guru ji synthesised one from the two ....

Yes, it does set a dangerous precedent. I didn't know the specifics. Seems like no serious research was undertaken. Probably the writer and director watched a couple of Cecil B DeMille religious epics from the 50's, viewed a few episodes of Mahabharata, and concocted the rest from their imagination, lol. Just goes to show the complete disdain for the average Sikh viewer from the people behind this film, i.e. "those idiots will lap anything up as long as it shows them in a good light."

"Leave the gun. Take the barfi."

The folks I have talked to seem to believe that this 2 hour movie is going to miraculously make up for the years of neglect of their duties as parents of up and coming Sikh generations...it is not , just like chaar sahibzahidey didn't; in fact it belittles the sakhian and lives to make it palatable for some censorious majority non-sikh population. Twisting , obscuring the truth to make money ...now that's how we want to promote Sikhi isn't it.

You can't win against these people. They're the "All paths lead to the same destination" brigade, lol. I mean, in itself the statement isn't untrue considering it's a poora and sacha bachan from Guru Sahib (even if it does irk us at times, hehe), but equally it doesn't mean you can spout the above line whilst pubbing, clubbing, and the other stuff, knowing full well that kind of behaviour is dodgy. Fair play, if a person genuinely doesn't know any better they can plead ignorance, but our lot want their cake and want to eat it too. Then they come out with the other "classics" such as, "Sikhism is a mix of Hinduism and Islam" (a completely reductive and devious line of reasoning), as well as offering spurious reasons for defying various maryada. Clever, clever people!

Could you please elaborate a bit on this point?

What do you mean by this?

Thanks.

In terms of what Jkvlondon said the film refuses to show the moment when Guru Nanak Ji confronts and admonishes the Mughal (Islamic) emperor.

There are a few things that have been said by the actors and production team on this film that have made me wonder what they are on...

1. Sikka has claimed many times that he was visited by Guru Nanak Dev ji in Dreams and told how to go about this film ...

A. the first interview he claimed he wrote the dialogue by himself , then he was inspired in a dream , then it became a number of nights of continuous visitations by Guru ji

B. He has admitted he knew very little if anything about the live of Guru ji , even at the ripe old age of Fifty.

2. His daughter while lovely , had plucked eyebrows on screen and then she also claimed by the time filming was over she felt She was Bebe Nanaki ... err no

3. They showed some violence against the people but yet did not show Guru ji Confronting or changing Babur's heart and attitude ...because it may offend certain sections of the community, then from what somebody who saw the movie claimed that the incident with throwing water to the sun and to Punjab was not show either ...for same reasons ...why make a film if you are scared to show Guru ji true colours?

That's very disingenuous on the part of the film-makers. If you can't present the correct message out of fear of being seized upon by Muslims, then don't bother making the film at all. Don't present selective truths or fabrications or half truths.

As for darshan from Guru Ji, I think anyone can have those if there's purpose to the darshan, I.e. to turn around one's life, or to embark upon Sikhi, etc. If he's using it as a way of selling the film then he's having a laugh.

Nanak Shah Fakir has high production values but unfortunately it will be too marred in controversy for people to appreciate it, I've worked in the creative sector all of my life and I have at time's played with the idea of doing Sikh educational work but i don't think i could deal with all the politics that come with it.[\b]

I know what you mean. Who wants a "fatwa" on their head from their own people, lol? Too much hassle, and it wouldn't be appreciated by vast swathes of the intended audience. Sounds like an easy way out, but it's the harsh reality.

Don't get me started on the visual quality and the quality of the animation of that film, like i've said earlier, the message was correct.

The amount of money the SGPC has they could bankroll Disney for life yet they can't invest in educating the future generation's using up to date methods.

That's the sad feature of projects like these, because it shows how far behind we are in terms of disseminating the message of our faith in the modern age. It doesn't have to be done in an obvious, preachy way (to be honest, that turns off many people, me included), but it can still be done in a respectful and stylish way. It just takes some thought and planning.

A few years ago an American born Hindu guy wrote and illustrated a graphic novel (a comic book) about the life of Krishna. It was a critical success and it ended up on many 'Best of the Year' lists at the time. I read it and it was stunningly beautiful in all respects. The art style was akin to dream-like, fresco-type illustrations we've seen in Indian history with the large, almondy eyes and thin, wiry limbs. What I'm saying is the art style matched the content and subject of the novel, as well as the cultural background of the personalities being presented i.e. the characters in the graphic novel weren't muscle-bound, ripped individuals from the pages of a Batman comic, lol, but relevant to the message contained within the pages. Most importantly, the prose and dialogue wasn't dry or one-dimensional (like the dialogue I saw in clips of Chaar Sahibzaade), e.g. "Three thousand years ago a boy was born in Nandgaon. He was born to rid the world of his tyrannical uncle Kans," lol, but it was lyrical, deeply philosophical, and clear to understand.

I was fortunate enough to visit Hazoor Sahib last year and it was a wonderful experience. Whilst there I was browsing the stalls, and there was a DVD / Video CD about Hazoor Sahib being heavily praised by the vendors (as they would I guess). They kept saying it was brilliant, and I thought I may as well check it out. On my return to the UK I put it in my DVD player and I could only chuckle at what I watched. It was a poorly shot, cringeworthy selection of songs sung by Miss Pooja and some other Punjabi singer, but instead of the aforementioned two singers appearing on-screen, a Gursikh bibi and a Gursikh man were miming to the music, lol! There were crowds of people behind them doing the classic "folding hands, closing their eyes, and rocking their head from side to side." I just couldn't believe it. In the year 2015 when Indians pride themselves on being no less sophisticated and worthy than anyone else in the world, we're still getting "productions" such as these that wouldn't look out-of-date in 1991. I mean, there's teenagers in their bedrooms on YouTube creating vlogs that have better quality video and audio than what I saw on that DVD; kids! How can institutions that generate incredibly huge sums of money each year fail to invest in modern production and broadcasting? They can't use the old reasons of, "Well, we don't know what's going on in the world" or "We haven't got the technology" because every man and his dog in India has a smartphone and knowledge about the latest tech, and if these babeh just for one moment chose not to waste sangat's churaava on the latest 4x4 to speed around in, and instead ploughed that money into the latest video equipment for developing mini-documentaries on Sikh history and notable Sikh personalities, it would be absolutely amazing!

It boils down to one thing: there's no desire or true love for the subject matter. These notable personalities all talk about this and that, but when it comes to making a change, nobody wants to know. So, you get people like this producer who made this Nanak Shah film or whatever it's called, stepping into the breach and making something that isn't exactly ideal on any level. Coupled with the general ethos of Punjabi culture shunning creative pursuits, because it's not a guaranteed earner such as the medical, legal, and business professions, then what exactly should we expect?

There is nothing extremist about calling for a ban for a movie that 1) may have been a human acting...

2) the producer makes crazy claims about Guru Nanak Dev Ji.3) simply not wanting people to fill their pockets in the name of religion.

I feel very uncomfortable at the notion of someone acting the role of one of our Gurus. Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day. What I have an issue with is us playing into the hands of these two-faced individuals who set out to offend and create controversy in order to sell a film YET play the victim when people object. We must be much smarter when combatting situations such as these. Perception is everything; I wish it wasn't, in this image driven, superficial world, but it is what it is.

Anyone with genuine creativity and artistry would devise a method of creating a feature film or an animation in a way that presents Guru Sahib's message without generating the kind of headlines this film has.

I agree with someone earlier who criticised Chaar Sahibzaade film; the message contained in the film was great, but the execution was shocking. Are we to believe Sikh millionaire film producers are only capable of producing something with CG that was out of date in a 1992 kids TV show? Aren't we as a community meant to be financially prosperous? Why not invest that money in something valuable like the future of the panth? And why did it have to be CG if the funds were clearly lacking? Why not hand-drawn in the old Indian style with a suitable score and direction? Or if it was CG do it in a way that didn't expose the lack of funds?

Something like this would've killed it:

http://37.media.tumblr.com/17c979d898445025d16ae3222bae1b3c/tumblr_n6cu0yTzPh1rlv62so1_500.gif

Never mind, lol, those big wigs know best.

She seemingly had a great future ahead of her. But what can you do when love strikes?...

... just walk away in the opposite direction

For me it is but there seem's to be an unhealthy strain of Sikhism forming which, in my book, is becoming more and more intolerant of anyone that has a different opinion and if we carry on down this path, as you mentioned, there will be comparisons with the way certain Muslims behave and sooner or later we'll be on the front page of the Daily Mail.

When jathas from the same supposed panth can't stand each other and are openly hostile to each other, what chance does anyone else have? Slippery slope, my friend, just wait and see.

I'm not a fan of the Sikh channels, i'll openly admit that but they do, on occasion provide some good programmes but on the whole i feel they do more damage than good, they seem to be an extension of the Gurdwara committees (or the white beard club as my dad calls it), I've been bought with with the saying "Man Neeva, Mat Uchi", i think someone need's to teach the presenter's on these channels the meaning of that.

Good motto

I don't watch any sort of television anymore, but on occasion when I've been at relative's homes I've happened upon said channels, and it does seem like an extension of that committee mentality. Preaching to the choir comes to mind. Self congratulatory, back slapping, and let's go home, lol, job done, the path is safe once more.