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| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 17, 2017, 07:49 AM IST
Creative ideas don’t come pre-packaged in assembly line. Propaganda does. As it has been for ages, creative works — be it a novel, a song, a play, an essay or any other creative form — will continue to disrupt and give us a cause to introspect about our extant social fibre. Besides forcing us to reflect, truly artistic works are instinctively dissentious. They hold truth to power. Obviously, this does not sit well with deeply entrenched social and moral structures. They would that we, as a people, mind our customs, our conventions, our cuisine, our cinema, our crafts, our culture and our very convictions.
Thankfully, Indians are no pushover given that we have a long experience of locking horns with moral policing. Every time fringe elements raise their ugly heads and uglier narratives, a few among us have steadfastly refused to kowtow to their ideas. Think back and a clutch of examples readily come to mind. Earlier this year, Lipstick Under My Burkha, a movie that portrayed the lives of four women yearning to break free of their societal yokes came under immense public pressure. The film certification board led by Pahlaj Nihlani denied a January release to the film on the ground that film’s plot is “lady-oriented” and had “contagious sexual scenes.”
When movies that wish to depict an unvarnished version of India are subjected to certification and censorship by such people, tensions are inevitable and sparks are bound to fly. The present brouhaha over Padmavati is moral policing redux. For months now, a persistent rumour — that the movie showcases an intimate dream sequence between Rani Padmavati and the dynast Allauddin Khilji — has been doggedly surrounding the movie.
Despite numerous denials by director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, these rumours have been blown out of proportions to fan a fervent opposition to the movie. So much so that the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a fringe group, has threatened to chop off actress Deepika Padukone’s nose, while declaring a bounty of Rs 5 crore on Bhansali’s head. Besides Padmavati, two other movies, S Durga (previously titled Sexy Durga) and Nude which were slated to be aired at the International Film Festival of India have become the bone of contention between the jury members and the Information and Broadcast ministry.
In the case of these two movies, the I&B ministry overruled a decision of the jury to feature these two movies at the festival. Both the movies, essentially, deal with the paranoia and fetters that go hand-in-hand with being a woman in a conservative Indian society. Instead of welcoming them with an open mind, the government has reacted to these movies with an ominous mix of suspicion and belligerence. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government has also jumped into the fray asking the I&B ministry to defer the release of Padmavati on the grounds that there is public anger against the movie, which could escalate into a law and order problem. This, effectively, amounts a silent capitulation to the factious elements in our midst.
