Shared by @GemsOfBollywood — We had a detailed expose ready on Lekin but withheld…

Shared by @GemsOfBollywood — We had a detailed expose ready on Lekin but withheld it out of respect for Lata Mangeshkar ji’s dehaant.

She was producer of probably the second blatant LJ-glorifying trash. She chose Gulzar for direction and story.

Her focus was on music which was wonderful.

And Gulzar? Chronic syndrome of Hindu vilification + Urdu glorification.

Lekin expanded a very short Rabindranath Tagore story into twisted fantasy of Gulzar –
– show Hindu thakurs as lecherous villains,
– Quran as book of magical powers,
– lower caste Hindus as victims of Thakur’s atrocity and
– Muslim as only savior for young Hindu girls.

Read this analysis

I rewatched Lekin yesterday after almost a decade. It remains one of my favourite films — thanks to its haunting theme and timeless music — and I know it will continue to be.

But this time, I couldn’t ignore some of the subtle communal undertones woven into the story.

1. For instance, the hero’s best friend is a Muslim man named Shafi Ahmed Siddiqui, and his Hindu wife is called Sharda Ahmed Siddiqui. Their interfaith marriage had no relevance to the plot — it was just there, almost like a quiet message.

2. Set in the early 1900s, the film shows a typical Rajput patriarch as a rapist and murderer, while a Muslim music teacher is portrayed as pure, spiritual, and noble. And strangely, the film fades out with “La ilaha illallah Muhammad ur Rasool Allah”, as if to anchor the entire mood in an Islamic spiritual frame — again, without narrative necessity.

3. Films often depict Rajputs as villains—even showing them raping underage girls while glorifying a Muslim music teacher as a savior. Maybe such cases happened, but why is there zero mention of the thousands of Hindu women raped, killed, or enslaved in Mughal harems over 500 years? Not one movie shows this truth – not even a slight mention.

It’s still a beautiful film, but once you notice these elements, they’re hard to unsee.