Mumbai : Lashing out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan over the security provided for My Name Is Khan, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray yesterday wondered whether Chavan was the bodyguard of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
"If he is a bodyguard, then he should don a security personnel's uniform, and stand outside Khan's ‘Mannat' bungalow and salute passers-by," Thackeray said in a vitriolic editorial in Saamna, the party's mouthpiece, a day after the movie's release.
Farmer suicides
According to Thackeray, during the past seven-eight days when Chavan was busy providing security to the superstar and his movie, eight farmers had committed suicide in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
"Instead of worrying about the suicides in Marathwada-Vidarbha-Khandesh [north Maharashtra], was it more important to ensure the release of Khan's stupid movie?" he demanded in the editorial.
The state's police force was "blatantly deployed" as if they were the "slaves and servants" of Khan and they arrested Shiv Sainiks.
Historical touch
"Was the movie based on the lives of heroes like Vasudev Balwant Phadke, Swatantraveer Savarkar or the Queen Laxmibai of Jhansi for requiring provision of so much security cover?
"What was achieved by exhibiting Khan's love lore for Pakistan in a handful of cinema halls under the cover of AK-47s?" he said.
Besides losing their mental balance in the entire Khan episode, "Ashok [Chavan] Khan" and Congressmen even had their belts come off, making it a complete "vastraharan [disrobing]", the editorial said.
Even as the chief minister and Home Minister "Khan" [R.R. Patil] watched the "nude dance" [movie], five more farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha, according to Thackeray.
Meanwhile, My Name is Khan has opened in all theatres in Mumbai, Pune and across Maharashtra, a spokesperson of director Karan Johar said yesterday.
"All centres in Mumbai, Pune and Maharashra have opened My Name is Khan," the spokesperson told IANS.
On Friday, only 13 theatres in the city had released the film, including six multiplexes and four single-screen halls. The movie was originally set to be released in 63 theatres.
