Between the devil and the deep sea

               Working over the weekend sure has its pros and cons. You get the benefit of working on an on empty operations floor, without the added disadvantage of all the people around you. But the fact you are working on an off day is disturbing enough.

    A couple of days ago, while scrolling through Facebook, I saw an article where the Censor Board of Film Certification has asked people to give their opinion on how they can improve the functioning of the board.

I snorted. The board, which tends to act like the moral guardian of Indian values and protect my countrymen from ‘western influence’, is actually asking us what we, as the audience, want to be changed. I, for one, have a lot of opinions and rants against the board for its hypocrisy. In order to voice my opinion out, I decided to broach this topic during our break with my manager.

What I did not realize was how this would turn out to be an intriguing topic which would spice up a dull day.

We both started talking at the same time. My manager, whom I would henceforth refer to as Mr. X, was all for censorship, while I spoke against it. I began with how the censorship is functioning as a ridiculous body, where a group of people decide what the entire nation must and must not see. I highlighted how the censor board allowed the release of movies like ‘Kya Kool Hain Hum 3’ & ‘Mastizaade’ while at the same time forcing Prakash Jha to make cuts in Jai Gangajal and the film ‘Aligarh’ receiving an A certificate, only because it deals with the subject of homosexuality. I quoted the actor Manoj Bajpai, who in the day’s paper, stated that censorship must be stopped and we should move on to certification.

It was this point Mr. X interrupted my monologue. He dismissed the notion that censorship must be stopped. On the contrary, he voiced out his support for the need of censorship. His points that censorship is required to maintain the level of decency and stopping the chaotic nature of man was the need of the hour. He compared the importance of censorship to that of law; how these correlated each other. Censorship in movies was essential to stop anything from being shown in the movies or influence people, especially the young minds.

I retorted back that this was the very thing that the censor board must rectify. The problem is the board thinks it is the only one who has to be protector of our culture and values. Globalization and technology has now brought the world in the palm of our hands. What the censor board tries to ban/cut/forbid something from people to see, can be searched on the internet today in a matter of seconds.

I gave him an example about myself. During my childhood, whenever there would be an adult scene, my dad would promptly change the channel, without even looking at us and my siblings, offering no explanation on the same. This naturally aroused my curiosity and made me wonder what was he preventing us from watching? Was it bad? Was it hurtful? Was it damaging enough to ruin our childhood? So, eventually, in school I learned about all these things and that was the day I knew I was no child anymore.

Mr. X silently heard me out. When he spoke, I was sure he was choosing his words very carefully. He opined that such kind of censorship made a man determined to burst out at the slightest of chances and sate his curiosity. He started explaining the concept of censorship. He explained that censorship was invented to prevent a person to do things as they like because someone else had a problem with it.

He shared his own experiences about his time in Australia. He said how in Australia, he saw people drinking and roaming on the streets late in the night. Those people, whom he saw, were not bad, but simply enjoying their lives and doing what they like. It was at that moment, he realised, how people back in India were living their lives by controlling their desires and not enjoying life to its fullest. It was this very reason why censorship was so vital in India. If people were allowed to do what they want, the entire society would collapse.

My thoughts flashed to a scene from the movie ‘The Avengers’, where the villain Loki taunts humans how freedom should be taken away from them. I thought momentarily about this. Are we really that uncivilized that we need someone over our heads to make sure we don’t stray off the line? Do we really need a secondary body to tell and decide what is good and what is wrong for a child, a teen or an adult?

There was a moment’s silence as we each digested what the other had said. As much as I respected Mr. X, I was amazed at his approach to things; how he pushed me to look at the broader picture, not limit my thinking to a narrow spectrum and made me broaden my horizon. I remember a memorable quote from our debate when he said that the head of the censor board has a thankless job; how he has to satisfy the ego of so many communities while making sure that no is offended. I was not sure if I agreed with him on this.

In the end, we both agreed that the censor board should not be affiliated to the government. It should be like an ombudsman, a third party body which provides detailed answers to the creators on why they have censored certain things from their works. This ombudsman should be respected by the film fraternity as well as the government; independent but working in coordination with both.

Any person can be a creator, who can create regardless of others sentiments and laments at the thought of his creativity being censored. But a creator, who respects everything and yet manages to portray his creativity in the same space is the mark of a true genius.