As Oppenheimer’s film fills cinema halls around the world, one scene has the blood of some Hindu nationalists boiling.
- The film Oppenheimer, about American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, sparked controversy among Hindu nationalists because of a scene in which the main character recites from the sacred Hindu scripture the Bhagavad-Gita during sexual intercourse.
- Feedback comes. From Uday Mahorkar, president of the Save Culture Save India Foundation, writing in an open letter on Twitter to director Christopher Nolan, he claimed the scene was a “disturbing attack on Hinduism”.
- He describes it as a direct attack on the religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus, likening it to waging war on the Hindu community.
- Mahorkar believes that the scene should be removed from the film so that Nolan can continue to “win the hearts of Hindus”.
- So far, there has been no official comment from the film’s team on the controversy.
Oppenheimer is about the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who is considered the father of the atomic bomb.
In one scene, the main character, played by Cillian Murphy, has sexual relations with his lover, Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh.
Pause during intercourse and pick up a copy of the “Bhagavad Gita” – one of the most sacred scriptures in Hinduism. She asks Murphy to read from him.
– Now that I am Death, the destroyer of the world, I read Oppenheimer’s character before they continue sexual intercourse.
This has caused a reaction from groups and politicians with Hindu nationalist views, among others Reuters And CNN.
In what appears to be an open letter to director Christopher Nolan, Uday Mahorkar, the Indian government-appointed Information Commissioner, writes: Twitter:
– We learned that there is a scene in Oppenheimer’s film that makes a disturbing attack on Hinduism.
He is also the President of ‘Save Culture Save India’, an organization working to ‘save traditions, culture and our India’.
He further wrote that it was “a direct attack on their religious faith of a billion tolerant Hindus”, and compared it to “waging war on Hindu society”.
Mahurkar writes that there are many admirers of the filmmaker in India. However, he believes that it is necessary to remove the scene from “Oppenheimer” so that Christopher Nolan continues to “win the hearts of Hindus.”
– If you choose to ignore this appeal, it will be considered a deliberate attack on Indian civilization, the post concludes on Twitter.
Neither Nolan nor anyone from the film’s crew has made any official comment on the controversy.
Nolan had previously said that before Oppenheimer he had read the Bhagavad-gita.
This is because Oppenheimer saw a lot of Hinduism while he was alive.
Oppenheimer said in an interview decades after the first atomic bomb test that he remembered a line from the “Bhagavad-gita”: “Now I have become death, the destroyer of the world.”
This line is used several times in the movie, including during the sex scene.
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