What CBFC’s refusal to certify 'Lipstick Under My Burkha' reveals about the Censor Board

Lipstick Under My Burkha, directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and produced by Prakash Jha, has run into a roadblock following the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) refusal to certify the film. Even though it won the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality at last year’s MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, the CBFC’s revising committee deemed Lipstick… unsuitable for Indian audiences. The board, in its letter to the filmmaker, according to media reports, stated that “the story is lady-oriented, their fantasy above life. There are contentious sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society”.
Shrivastava had screened the film for the revising committee on February 20, when she was told by CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani that the committee was unanimous in its decision to not certify the film. “This means they do not want the film to run in Indian theatres or television,” says the director, who is showcasing the movie at the ongoing Glasgow Film Festival.

Below is the reason CBFC listed for denying #LipstickUnderMyBurkha a release. Keep your barf bag ready.. pic.twitter.com/NFO42sRJIb

— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) February 23, 2017

Once the CBFC issues a formal letter, the director and producer will approach the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), which hears appeals against the decisions of censor board. The 36-year-old filmmaker is outraged by the board’s diktat. “The real problem doesn’t lie with the film, but in the outlook of a patriarchal society. Mainstream cinema in India is determined by the male gaze. We are used to seeing women as objects of desire, and mostly in peripheral roles. So, when a film like Lipstick... talks about the intimate desires of women, and their urge to take agency over their own bodies and lives, it runs fowl of the established code,” she says.

Shrivastava draws attention to the endemic and deep-rooted male perspective that manifests in telling ways, but rarely invites criticism. “Look at the item songs where the camera goes up and down the woman’s body, and nobody objects to that. This is the kind of hypocrisy we have failed to confront as a collective,” she says.

She finds the board’s logic, particularly “a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society” in the refusal letter, disconcerting. “The film not only won rave reviews at the Cairo film festival, but also earned glowing praise throughout Egypt, which is an Islamic country,” she says.

Set in a small town, the film portrays the winds of change sweeping through the lives of four women, played by Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur. It has already travelled to Stockholm, Japan and Cairo and is slated to feature in Miami, Paris and London film festivals.

Nihalani’s decision, though purportedly aimed at pacifying the sentiments of a particular section of the Muslim community, has failed to muster acceptance. “I’m opposed to any kind of ban or attack on a work of art. Leave it to the people to decide. If somebody finds anything offensive in the film, they can choose not to watch it,” says Hasina Khan, founder-member of the Bebaak Collective, an umbrella of Muslim women’s groups, which is spearheading a campaign opposing triple talaq and Uniform Civil Code. If the views of the director do not resonate with the viewers, they will automatically reject it,” she says.

The CBFC chairman’s decision has also been criticised by liberal voices in the minority community. “I am not surprised that nobody objected to the film but the CBFC. We have a very conservative chairperson who is acting arbitrarily, and not as per the board’s guidelines, if we take just Udta Punjab as a case in point. He isn’t aware of the feminist voices emerging from within the community. Groups like Aawaaz-e-Niswaan (Voice of Women) and Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan are fighting for women’s rights. He seems to be stuck in a time warp,” says Irfan Engineer, director at the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism.