By Rehan Fernando –

Rehan Derrick Fernando

PK is a Hindi movie that tremendously became very popular among not only Indians but also Asians too because of its critical content on the subcultures of religions. PK particularly points out both critically and analytically, how many religious people manipulate their religions and mislead the public through different fake and mythological senses. Such activities are called a “wrong number” in the movie because those activities never give the idea of religion but are just mere businesses. This is the groundbreaking concept of the movie. I think this concept of “wrong number” is still valid in Sri Lanka more than in India.

Summary of the movie

It is as follows:

“An alien (Aamir Khan) lands on Earth and gets robbed on the very first day of his voyage. Though he came on earth entirely naked just like a newborn baby, he had the precious gadget which was his only means to head back to his planet, which has now been robbed. His antics gain him the name of “PK” from the habitats of Earth. In the quest of finding the robbed property, PK earns the friends of life in Bhairav Singh (Sanjay Dutt) and Jagat Janani aka Jaggu (Anushka Sharma). Through his child-like curiosity, he challenges the spiritual odyssey and raises the curtains from religion and godmen.” [PK (2014) Plot | Story Line – BollywoodMDB, accessed on 11th July 2023]

The film is a blockbuster not only in the Indian film industry but in the fields of political, economic, religious, social, etc. It is from such a perspective that I am now going to express my views, especially analyzing the concept of “wrong number”.

Sri Lanka as a country is a Wrong Number

Perhaps many Sri Lankans would surely have their criticism when I label Sri Lanka as a wrong number; yes, Sri Lanka is a wrong number. Beginning from Ranil Wickramasinghe who is the so-called president to a beggar in the street in this country are wrong numbers. It is too hard to speak of the right numbers in this country for either you are murdered or jailed or punished or kidnapped. Sri Lanka as a country deals with mafia and immoral acts. Having done these types of immoral acts, the citizens of this country, I mean the majority will defend their acts in any illegal way possible. It is the Buddhist supremacy that defends all types of mafia and other religions and religious leaders more willingly support. For instance, the April 21st Easter bomb attack would give enough shreds of evidence. I am tired of seeing this manipulation in this country. Therefore, expressing my democratic freedom, I would surely conclude that Sri Lanka is a “Wrong Number.”

Education in this land is a Wrong Number

Another area that we never encounter progress is education. Education in this country is a matter of facing hundreds of exams and working with textbooks. The educated personalities too just prepare the syllabuses for children forcing them to deal with science and maths only. Education in Sri Lanka is measured by memorizing the content of the due subjects, and finally, getting high marks is compulsory.

Sri Lanka has no proper agenda to stop memorizing culture or culture of memorizing. It will continue for another five decades even. The sad situation is that the responsible people and authorities of the Ministry of Education are open to other cultures and their educational methodologies. Such a work implies the frog-mentality.

Getting off the bus of science

I consider Sri Lanka as a group of passengers who have purposely got on the bus of myth instead of the bus of science. Either they have missed or willfully done it. They would have surely awaited at the right bus station for the bus of science. According to this metaphor, it was the bus of science that came first, and in a second they also saw the arrival of the bus of myth. So, the majority made a decision to get on the bus of myth, and many others would have imitated and followed. Eventually, the bus of science was empty and did not move since there were no passengers. Their choice is a “Wrong Number.”

Science has no place in this land. Empty vessels are everywhere. Science as a bird has got its necessary feathers and flew to other different lands. It has got enough space in those lands to grow with other birds such as technology, medicine, health care, higher education, etc. Instead of keeping that lovely birth called science, Sri Lanka has allowed a cunning fox to run the show. What a calamity! People have become notorious in every field. Such cunning foxes are living in temples, churches, and many religious places today. Thus, ordinary people follow the same cunningness. Should I still explain the outcome more and more? It is absolutely a “Wrong Number.”

Concluding remark

I would still invite Sri Lankans to watch PK and learn some good critical lessons. I know India is also struggling to read and learn from Anbe Sivam and PK, that’s a different story. However, we could be humble enough to go through this exercise without looking at prejudices. Most of us are real “wrong numbers” in this country. Better at least now to make real better efforts to become the right numbers in this country.