Hindu verse recited by Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer sex scene with Florence Pugh sparks fury in India
OPPENHEIMER has sparked fury in India after a sacred Hindu verse was recited during a sex scene.
With a cast including Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Gary Oldman, the biopic delves into the political and sexual intrigue around the “father of the atomic bomb”.
In one scene, American scientist J Robert Oppenheimer recited a famous line from the Bhagwad Geeta after having sex with Jean Tatlock.
“Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds,” he read out, a phrase the physicist reportedly recalled when the first atomic bomb he invented was detonated on July 16, 1945.
However, the scene has sparked outrage from officials in the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Uday Mahurkar, an Indian journalist and senior official at the government’s Central Information Commission, labelled it “a scathing attack on Hinduism.”
In an open letter to director Christopher Nolan on Twitter, he wrote: “As per social media reports, a scene in the movie shows a woman makes a man read Bhagwad Geeta aloud while getting over him and doing sexual intercourse.
“She is holding Bhagwad Geeta in one hand, and the other hands seems to be adjusting the position of their reproductive organs.
“The Bhagwad Geeta is one of the most revered scriptures of Hinduism.
“Geeta has been the inspiration for countless sanyasis, brahmcharis and legends who live a life of self-control and perform selfless noble deeds.
“We do not know the motivation and logic behind this unnecessary scene on life of a scientist.
“But this is a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus, rather it amounts to waging a war on the Hindu community and almost appears to be part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces.”
Mr asked why can’t Hollywood be sensitive about Hindu traditions in the same careful manner as it is done with Muslims.
“We are living in a very polarised world,” he continued.
“The agencies, media, politics and even your Hollywood film industry is very sensitive about the fact that Quran and Islam is not depicted in any manner that may offend the value system of a common Muslim, even if you make something based on Islamist terrorism.
“Why should not the same courtesy be also extended to Hindus?
“We urge, on behalf of billion Hindus and timeless tradition of lives being transformed by revered Geeta, to do all that is needed to uphold dignity of their revered book and remove this scene from your film across world.
“Should you choose to ignore this appeal it would be deemed as a deliberate assault on Indian civilisation.”
Hashtags such as #BoycottOppenheimer and #RespectHinduCulture have been trending on Twitter.
“This should be investigated… on an urgent basis and those involved should be severely punished,” the nationalist Save Culture Save India Foundation said.
Oppenheimer was released in the United States and the UK last week on July 21.