Salman Khan’s film Prem Ratan Dhang Payo was just released. The film did not garner very good reviews from critics. However, it became a big success at the box office. It has so far grossed more than 400 crore rupees. Why did this film get such an overwhelming response from moviegoers in spite of not receiving good evaluations by the critics? I feel that the main reason for this is that it talked of repairing broken human relations and uniting the disintegrated families. Salman Khan plays a double role in the movie. His main character is of an actor in a drama company. However, he resembles a prince whose family is suffering from disintegration and the family relations are completely broken. The Prince’s younger brother wants to have him killed in order to take his estate and property. His sisters are not on speaking terms with him and have filed lawsuits to get their share of the property. The Prince is only able to talk to his sisters through their attorney. The elders have been completely marginalized. The Prince cannot get along with his fiancée.
There are only a few days left in the Tilak (coronation ceremony) of the Prince. His brother hatches an assassination plot. However, the Prince somehow survives but with grievous injuries. His loyal Deewan (Finance Minister) wants that while he is recovering, his look-alike should be passed as him so that no one can find out that the Prince has been wounded and attempt to kill him. His look-alike manages to bring the broken family together. I feel this is the main reason for the phenomenal success of the movie because today people are longing for family unity and revival of broken relations.
Capitalism started dehumanizing process from its inception. As the capitalism started to develop, this process also started to increase. In the stage of globalization, which is the highest stage of capitalism, the dehumanization process has also reached its peak. Man has almost completely lost his human qualities and has only become a consumer. Family disintegration is almost complete. Just like the royal family in the movie, all families are facing the same situation. For example, we can see in Punjab how human relations have become weak and many families are facing disintegration. It was not uncommon in Punjab to read about a brother killing his brother for land and property. Now, we see many sisters filing lawsuits against their brothers to get a share in the land and property. Even one comes across cases where a daughter gets her parents killed for the sake of land and property. We read about wives joining their lovers and killing their husbands. Joint families are a thing of the past. Most of the families have become nuclear. There are many families in Punjab where only the parents are here; their children have migrated to foreign countries. Every day, Punjab is scaling new heights in the fields of breaking of human relations and disintegration of families. Punjab can easily compete for gold medals if these were Olympic events. Even a very ordinary person can be heard saying that human relations have been replaced by money.
The breaking of human relations and disintegration of family represent human degeneration and dehumanization. Human relations are a good indicator of these phenomena. It can also be said that human relations are good indicator of the health of a society. When they become weak, then the society cannot be healthy and actually becomes a sick society. Any independent survey will confirm that a majority of people are suffering from mental tension and sickness. It is estimated that more than one-third population now suffers from mental illness in India. In most of the other countries, the situation is similar or even worse. Some may question that how can we call one-third population a majority of population or how can we say that the whole society has become sick? It should be made clear that these statistics only include those people whose illness has reached that stage where their normal functions is affected. If we include those people, who are somehow still able to function, but are suffering from mental tension (stress), anxiety, and depression, then they will certainly become the majority of the population. Fear, anxiety, and insecurity are the hallmarks of capitalism. Eventually, these three combine to push people into depression. Many people, a vast majority, experiences some symptoms of depression. However, we only include those people in mental illness who have clinically significant depression. In other words, they cannot function normally. Another factor in these statistics should also be taken into consideration. Society does not look at the mental illness in the same way as it looks at physical illness. Therefore, many people try to hide their mental illness to avoid the stigma. If we include all of these people, then we can easily establish the fact that in capitalism, majority of people become mentally sick. We should also remember that many people are taking medication for coping with stress, anxiety, insomnia (sleeplessness), and depression. These medicines keep their symptoms under control.
In America, generally it is accepted that there are four sources of constant problems:
· Deadlines and due dates: Most people are worried about not meeting deadlines and due dates such as filing income tax returns, receiving licenses, getting recertified, business inspections, etc.
· Bills: When an American opens his mail, he is reminded of all of the bills he is supposed to pay. In no other society do you hear the expression so frequently, “I have to pay my bills.”
· Strained relations: Out of these, the most common is the relation between husband and wife. More than 50% of marriages are destined to break. Divorce has become a social norm rather than an exception. Relations between parents and children are strained and children want to move out of the family home. Many middle-aged mothers suffer from Empty nest syndrome.
· Legal problems: America can easily qualify as the most litigious society in the world. Most of the people going through divorces have to go through the legal process. In many professions such as medicine, it is the rule rather than exception that you are going to face lawsuits. Many car accidents and even neighborhood disputes end up in the courts. It will not be an exaggeration to say that if anything untoward happens to an American, the first thing he or she thinks of is filing a lawsuit. Tragedy is automatically seen as an opportunity to make money. While America still leads in this field, other societies are trying to catch up.
If we want to re-humanize people then we have to revive human relations and preserve family integrity. However, this is going to be much more difficult than what happened in the movie. It is not possible as long as we are following the capitalist model of development. We need a pro-people and pro-nature alternate model of development.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
