Religious Hostilities Delay Love Story

A movie depicting a Romeo-andJuliet love story set amid HinduMuslim riots will open later than planned in Bombay, but the government refused to bow to Muslim demands to ban the movie.

The romance, “Bombay,” was to have been released Thursday in India’s financial capital, but was delayed until Saturday after Muslims threatened to demonstrate outside movie halls.

Despite being a formula romance, the movie has generated controversy because the hero is a Hindu, the heroine is a Muslim, and the setting is the 1993 riots that killed 800 people in Bombay alone.

The movie examines the hostilities between many of India’s 750 million Hindus and its 120 million Muslims.

It has aroused Muslim ire by showing the heroine without the traditional veil and angered Hindu extremists in Bombay because it portrays their leader as the one who incited the riots two years ago.