Sacred Games 2 director Neeraj Ghaywan takes offence to Muslim boy's mob-lynching scene being compared to an item number

A lot has been said and written about Sacred Games season 2 which has been jointly directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and Anurag Kashyap. While the series got a thumbs up from the critics, it has got a mixed response from the viewers, with most of them critcising it. One such criticism was aimed at a particular scene in Sacred Games 2, in which a young Muslim boy is shown getting lynched by a mob. 

One of the Twitter users who goes by the Twitter handle of @GabbarSingh pointed out that the scene didn't have any connection with the plot of the story and served merely as an 'item number'. He tweeted, “Other directors put an item number in their movies which has no connection with the story, Anurag kashyap put a mob-lynching in his show which had no connection with the story #SacredGamesS2"

Now, director Neeraj Ghaywan, who helmed the particular episode in which the said scene was showcased came out to defend it. He wrote, "You didn’t have the courage to put up even a solidarity tweet when a real lynching has happened. And now to hide your lack of narrative understanding, you equate someone’s courage to put it up on a global platform as ‘item number’? Amazing."

 August 25, 2019

Those who've come in late, Anurag Kashyap only directed the portions having Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui)'s storyline, while the one with Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) was helmed by Ghaywan. 

Meanwhile, the Twitter banter didn't end there. @GabbarSingh went on to dig up an old tweet of his from 2017 to say that he doesn't support mob-lynching. To that, Ghaywan responded by saying that it hurts when someone discredits their work by comparing it to something frivolous as item numbers. He tweeted, “I directed the lynching scene. Surely you can say it didn’t work for YOU or that you didn’t get it. You have no idea how difficult it is put out something like that with your real name. And when you discredit it by appropriating it to something frivolous as item number, it hurts."

 August 25, 2019

Finally, the war of words on Twitter ended with the two of them coming to an agreement. While the Twitter user wrote, "I appreciate all the effort that goes behind, and I also understand the anguish if you think a criticism is unfair, it’s like someone abusing your baby. But to begin your point by accusing me of being a Lynch-supporter or not being ‘courageous’ also hurts", Ghaywan concluded by replying, "Good! Now you’ll know how it feels when someone with many followers writes a misinformed tweet about you."

 August 25, 2019

Ghaywan also added, "Before you twist my words again: I don’t have problems with criticism. Absolutely fine if it doesn’t work for you. Fine if you don’t know the directorial credits. What is not acceptable is that your are misinformed about our intent and appropriating it to ‘item numbers’.”

Meanwhile, the Tweeple didn't seem too happy with the way Sacred Games season 2 has panned out. Soon after the season two of the much awaited Netflix original began streaming, a number of Twitterati took  to their social media pages to share how disappointed they were with Sacred Games 2. The makers got a lot of flak for the series being utterly slow-paced and underwhelming.