“The White Man’s Burden”

On the face of it, the movie deals with imperialism of the nineteenth century wherein colonial superpowers like England enslaved the black in the name of civilizing them—a seemingly moral obligation that the English laureate Rudyard Kipling so eloquently referred to as. But, if one digs deeper the tale that is presented here appears to be both universal as well as timeless. A couple of centuries back, it was sugar that was perceived as a priced commodity, one that could make or break a fortune, but in the contemporary context, oil is the commodity that holds that coveted spot. Such is the power of Queimada that the conflict depicted in the movie can be aptly applied to several scenarios of past few decades. While in the movie it is the overambitious English sugar plantation company that held the actual sway over the Governments of Queimada as well as Great Britain, today we have petrochemical giants that happen to dictate their terms to the governments of the world. Queimada serves to be a smack in the face for all the perpetrators of mankind who have ever tried to exploit or patronize a certain oppressed section of humanity on the basis of color, creed, race, caste, sex, or religion.