Context

'Kaali' Film Poster: Why Such Demeaning Representations Should Be Challenged

Nishtha AnushreeJul 06, 2022, 11:30 AM | Updated 11:30 AM IST
Tweet sharing the poster of 'Kaali'

Tweet sharing the poster of 'Kaali'


A film poster showing a woman dressed as Kaali smoking a cigarette has stirred the pot.

Context: Only recently, Nupur Sharma was facing heat over her comments on Mohammed, whom Muslims regard as their prophet.

  • Inhuman executions were carried out against those who simply expressed support for Sharma in opposition to the death threats she had been receiving.

  • It's a different story when Hindu gods and goddesses are portrayed obscenely. Mostly there are no violent reactions, let alone murders. At worst, there is online trolling and FIRs lodged.

  • Repeat offender: Kaali director Leena Manimekalai reinforces the negative stereotypes of Hindu society and culture that the colonialists implanted in the mediocre academic psyche.

    • Leena has made a film on ritualistic prostitution and child sex abuse, allegedly prevalent in a particular Dalit community in Tamil Nadu.

  • It is one-sided propaganda with no opposing viewpoints presented. Community leaders and leading Dalit voices in Tamil Nadu investigated the place in the documentary and contested its authenticity.

  • They wrote in a report that while Dalit communities were suffering from poverty and disease, certain NGOs are trying to make use of the situation and convert even their deities into sex workers.

  • Opposition to Kaali: After facing flak on social media, FIRs have been registered against Leena in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.


  • Kali is a Hindu Goddess and as much Vedic as she is tribal. In fact, Vedic is tribal and vice versa. Some devotees offer the goddess arrack and liquor, meat, and maybe even a cigar.

  • However, that happens in the sacred context of veneration of the devotee and the deity, not in the context of a commercial informer to colonial academic institutions.

  • Blasphemy in Hinduism? Blasphemy of Hindu gods and goddesses, however hurtful it may be to a follower, is not the same as blasphemy of the god in Islam or Christianity.

    • Hindus are, therefore, disadvantaged in the politics of blasphemy because our civilisation views blasphemy as juvenile stupidity and not as an unforgivable sin.

  • While blasphemy may or may not be an offence, depending upon its veracity, hate speech in a healthy, vibrant, pluralistic democracy is dangerous and should be curtailed.

  • The Hindu response: Negative stereotyping of Hindu society is hatred against the culture.

    • Hindus should oppose hate propaganda because such demeaning stereotypes usually pave the way for holocausts.

  • Attempts like the Kaali film, which are done to demean Hindu society and dharma, should be challenged.

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