The recently released film ‘Bawaal’ has sparked controversy as it comes under fire from a Jewish human rights organization for allegedly demeaning the memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. As per reports in Indian Express, the organization has issued a fervent demand for the immediate removal of the film from Prime Video. Jewish human rights body Simon Wiesenthal Center has objected to how the film has conflated the tragedy in the narrative. The film’s lead characters travel to World War 2 sites and visit a gas chamber in Auschwitz. They are shown inside a gas chamber in a dream-like sequence with visuals where they struggle to breathe.
In one scene, Janhvi’s character Nisha says, “We’re all a little like Hitler, aren’t we?” when discussing human greed. And in another scene, the character is heard saying, “Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz,” implying that every relationship has its struggles. SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, has asked Amazon to “stop monetizing” Bawaal immediately and called the film a “banal trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust.”
He said, “Auschwitz is not a metaphor. It is the quintessential example of Man’s capacity for Evil.” The statement further read, “By having the protagonist in this movie declare that ‘Every relationship goes through their Auschwitz,’ Nitesh Tiwari trivializes and demeans the memory of 6 million murdered Jews and millions of others who suffered at the hands of Hitler’s genocidal regime.” citing its portrayal of sensitive historical events as disrespectful and offensive.
“If the filmmaker’s goal was to gain PR for their movie by reportedly filming a fantasy sequence at the Nazi death camp, he has succeeded. Amazon Prime should stop monetizing Bawaal by immediately removing this banal trivialization of the suffering and systematic murder of millions of victims of the Nazi Holocaust,” the statement concluded.
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