Thinking Allowed (Aloud) - Movie review

In 54 minutes, this movie can potentially change your opinion about Kolkata, Mother Teresa and poverty in India in general.
The movie is set in Kolkata, which, unfortunately (as you will realise within minutes into the movie) is known for abject poverty, the gutters, and then that famous Saint of the Gutters, Mother Teresa.
As is highlighted in the movie, Bengalis worship many women, most of its celebrated festivals happen to be related to the Godesses, and this white woman, Mother Teresa brings out that often unadmitted yet obvious Indian fascination for white skin.

The movie raises many questions like -

If Mother Teresa were to be a black woman, would her stature and image be as huge as it became?
And then, Bangladesh had many more poor and suffering ; so is this the Hindu obsession ? In a non Hindu nation, would someone like Mother Teresa, a Catholic be even allowed to do anything in the name of social work?

And then, the movie goes on to reveal more relevant facts and make you think - think really hard.

During the last 20 years of her life, Mother Teresa spent about 6-7 months each year abroad. So, what was it that she did in the remaining months, that the other sisters of the Missionaries of Charity not do?
Missionaries of Charity is estimated to have received a 100 million USD in donations from all over the world. Mother Teresa's charm and charisma was such.
But, the collections themselves total a mammoth 2 billion US dollars, and this is not taking into account any income from investment returns.
So, just how many poor people did MC "uplift" with those 2 billion dollars?
Just how many lepers did Kolkata have? And just how many lepers did MC save each year?

Yes. At this point, I did think of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams for a moment. BUt, the TTD, although it does some charity in its own way, it does not profess to be dedicated to the cause of the poor and the suffering, in the manner MC does.

As correctly pointed out by an ex-MC spokesperson herself, Mother Teresa was one of the most successful fund raisers and businessman the world had ever seen.
And as you shall realise, she was in the business of conversion.

It is quite shameful that Mother Teresa actually helped create negative publicity about Kolkata. The western image of Kolkata is one of poverty, leprosy, hand pulled rickshaws, suffering, death, gutters and then Mother Teresa.
I am also forced to recollect the systematic beggarisation of Bengal during the colonial days, when Britain dumped its own textiles in India, in an effort to artificially be in business. Nick Robin's "The Corporation that Changed the World" goes on to talk about how weavers in Bengal cut off their fingers in a bid to avoid weaving; for they were paid less what they needed to subsist and survive. Artifcial economic environments were in large part the cause of such poverty in Bengal.

Yes, Communism exacerbated the already existing poverty, and as the movie highlights, processions, strikes and Bandhs are often organised for no reason, and people take out processions from nowhere to nowhere, bringing down business everywhere.


As the movie further points out, if Mother Teresa were not a white Catholic, the international press would not be as kind as it was to her.
Mother Teresa drew support from The Vatican. In her Nobel acceptance speech, Mother Teresa says that the greatest damage is done in the world by Abortion.
By shunning abortion, apparently, there shall be world peace. But isnt poverty itself quite often due to the avoiding of abortion.
I do not want to hurt anyone's religious beliefs here, but for someone like Mother Teresa to make such a statement during a Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech is - shameful to say the least!
The movie makes you wonder further about how Gandhi was never awarded the Nobel Peace prize, although he was nominated not once or twice, but 5 times!

This is a documentary really, and the people to watch out for are - Aroup Chatterjee, the author of "The Final Verdict". A doctor based out of London, he has carried out 8 years of research on Mother Teresa.
And then, Subir Bhoumik, an ex-BBC correspondent is another man who doesnt hesitate to point out the Indian obsession for white skin as well as the Western obsession with the dark and gloomy image of India.
There is another man, an ex-railway officer, whose name I forget, who reserves the choicest of abuses for Mother Teresa, and he is quite entertaining :)

Made in 2005, by Judhajit Sarkar and running into 54 minutes, the movie is nothing short of education - an eye opener to use a cliche.
And definitely a must watch for a Bengali or - for that matter anyone who has spent even a few hours in Kolkata - the airport and Salt Lake City dont count :P