Now that Saudi Arabia has lifted the ban on cinema, Keralites, one of the largest expatriate communities in the kingdom, are excited that they will be able to watch Malayalam films, possibly the same day as new films are released in Kerala, in the Saudi cinema halls soon.
Saudi Arabia has the second largest Malayali population outside India and in Saudi cities such as Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, Dammam, Abha, Jizan, Yambo, and Rabak there are large communities of Malayalis. Places such as Sharafiyya in Jeddah and Batha in Riyadh are considered Malayali enclaves.
“If everything goes well, there could be exclusive Malayalam theatres in Sharafiyya and Batha,” says Abu Iringattiri, the Malayalam short-story writer who has been working in Jeddah for a quarter century. “As in Dubai and Bahrain, it is possible that Malayalam films will be released in Jeddah or Riyadh too.”
The scrapping of the ban on cinema could open up a market for Malayalam films in Saudi Arabia. However, Hindi cinema, which has a huge fan following among Saudis, would be the biggest gainer, Mr. Iringattiri points out.
On Monday, Saudi Culture Minister Awwad Alawwad announced in Riyadh the lifting of the 35-year-old ban on cinema. The government would sanction 2,000 screens in 300 theatres across the country by the year 2030; some of them would open within three months.
The landmark step is viewed as part of the bewildering series of initiatives being taken recently to open up Saudi society, culture and economy at the instance of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The 32-year-old Prince Mohammed, who will succeed to the Saudi throne, is pushing religious reforms too in the ultra-conservative kingdom. In April last year he unveiled an ambitious plan called Saudi Vision 2030 to restructure the economy.
However, the socio-cultural reforms over the past two years have been surprising in a country where Wahhabism, a `puritanical and fundamentalist version of Islam,’ has deep influence. Wahhabism is scornful of cinema, music, theatre, dance and many forms of modern cultural expressions and insists that women should wear the black, face-covering veil in public.
Two months ago, the government, in a daring challenge to the Wahhabi clerics, allowed women to drive starting from next June — a reform with long-term impact on Saudi society. Women have also been allowed to go to stadiums to watch sports events and music concerts.
Grand mosque seizure
Cinema was banned 35 years ago by the then King Khaled. “I used to see movies in Jeddah theatres before the ban,” Khalid Irumpuzhi, who has been in Jeddah for 43 years, told The Hindu . Mr. Irumpzuhi remembers that it was the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Makkah by religious extremists that had led to the fundamentalist crackdown on cinema and other popular forms of entertainment.
King Khaled gave the clerics and religious police more powers.
Crown Prince Mohammed is now spearheading the change. In a recent article after interviewing Prince Mohammed, The New York Times journalist Thomas L. Friedman, noted: “The most significant reform process underway anywhere in the Middle East today is in Saudi Arabia.” He continued: “…and, if it succeeds, it will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia, but the tone and tenor of Islam across the globe.”
Fazal Ghafoor, president of the Muslim Education Society, says that the socio-cultural and religious reforms taking place in Saudi Arabia will have tremendous impact on Kerala’s Muslim community. “The adoption of highly conservative religious practices by a section of Muslims in Kerala, including the imposing of the black, face-covering burqa on women over the past two decades is a direct influence of the Saudi practices.”
Dr. Gafoor hopes that these deviations would pass. “If Saudi Arabia is itself reforming, Kerala Muslims cannot turn a blind eye to it,”he said. “I see a return to the liberal Islam which existed in Kerala for several centuries until before the Wahhabi ideological invasion over the past two decades.”
Published - December 13, 2017 08:06 pm IST
