Bollywood film ‘Crook’ slammed as racist

MELBOURNE - The Bollywood film ‘Crook: it’s Good to be Bad’, which has scenes inspired from the violent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, has been slammed as racist.

In the film, Melbourne is depicted as a city rife with gang violence between Australians and Indians, while the locals are portrayed as being either beer-guzzling blokes or immoral women, reports The Herald Sun.

“The film tries to pack in every sensational aspect of racism that is possible. There’s a white woman who pole dances and sleeps with (the male lead) with equal fervour,” a review in India Today read.

“Naturally she is blonde and has big you-know-whats. There is an Australian man, her brother, Russell, who goes around hitting and bullying Indians. There is no other word for it. It’s terrible. More than that, it is badly directed,” the review added.

Another site bollyspice.com commented, “Crook is far too insensitive a film.”

“A country of ex-convicts. A country where they sleep with each other without marrying. A country where they don’t take care of their families. Yes that’s the sort of venom that’s spewed against the Australians in Crook,” an India Today reviewer wrote.

Director Mohit Suri said his inspiration came after visiting a Sunshine convenience store.

“As the news flashed ‘Over 20 incidents of curry bashing have taken place in Sydney and Melbourne in the past 30 days’, I found myself standing outside a 24-hour convenient store in the Sunshine district of Melbourne city in search of a story,” he said in an interview with an Indian entertainment website.

“Outraged and humiliated I felt the need to voice this as a filmmaker. However, as I left the store my eyes fell upon an advertisement on the store window, which said ‘accommodation available for Indian students - for Gujrati (an Indian race) boys only’,” he said. (ANI)