Undue importance to 300

As a Parsi, I could not help experiencing a feeling of smug superiority every time I read a news report about some Muslim cleric issuing a fatwa over some perceived blasphemy or a Hindu mob going on a rampage over the desecration of a statue. Thank goodness we are not like that, I thought. We Parsis are a tolerant race, with the ability to brush off perceived insults, and even to laugh at our peculiarities. Hence, it is disheartening to realize that some of us, at least, are cast in the same mold as those we deride.

If the entire issue wasn’t so pathetic, it would be laughable. The cause of all this brouhaha is a B-grade action flick, 300, whose only selling point is bloody gore and mindless violence. Movies of this genre demand that the protagonists be divided into heroes and villains ­— there are no shades in between. In the battle of Thermopylae, the Persians were vanquished. That is a historical fact. Naturally, they were cast as the bad guys.

Not surprisingly Parsi ‘spokesmen’ have chimed in with their penny’s worth. Khojeste Mistree — that self-proclaimed messiah of Bombay Parsis — has seen fit to impart a portentous history lesson to the supposedly ignorant. A US-based Parsi reads political overtones — America’s present antagonism towards Iran — into the film’s bias.

For heaven’s sake, people! 300 is an out an out dhishoom-dhishoom (action) movie that caters to the least common denominator. Its target audience would not recognize history if it got slapped in the face with it — nor would it care. Why are we giving it such undue importance, instead of treating it with the contempt it deserves?

FIROZE HIRJIKAKA