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Journalism of Courage
Fifty-seven years on, you don’t expect the Censor Board to act squeamish about women smoking on screen or cringe at swear words in a movie targetted at youth.
Yet, Manu Rewal’s Chai, Paani etc., a light-hearted film, could not get past the Chennai Censor Board, which has asked him to delete the visual of a girl smoking, silence the word ‘‘reservationwallahs’’ and blip cuss-words in a movie it wants to certify ‘‘Adult’’.
Rewal submitted the film for certification in March and had timed it for release during the summer vacations, long gone by. ‘‘The board has isolated words and scenes out of content,’’ says Rewal. From the look of it, the appellate tribunal whose doors Rewal knocked last week, is inclined to accept the Chennai Board’s verdict with a minor change. He may be allowed to use the ‘‘b******’’ word in the film.
Censor Board chairman Anupam Kher is not aware of the decision but is not perturbed. ‘‘In a country that makes 900 films each year, 10-odd complaints received from filmmakers is a tribute to the manner in which the Censor Board functions in the country,’’ he said.
The board’s observation on smoking by women on screen, sources said, may have to do with Health Ministry’s appeal to the film industry to clip scenes of smoking filmstars. The scene of the actress smoking is not meant to promote or titillate, Rewal says. ‘‘It actually takes a dig at smokers.’’
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Plea against ban on Godhra documentary
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Participants and organisers at the Anti-fascist Documentary Film Festival held on Sunday have urged the Union Government, in a memorandum, to take steps to revoke the ban on internationally-acclaimed documentary Final Solution and reconstitute the Censor Board. Final Solution, directed by Rakesh Sharma, is set in Gujarat during February 2002-July 2003 and documents the changing face of right-wing politics through a study of the violence against the Muslim community. —ENS |
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The film stars Konkana Sen Sharma in a double role and was shot extensively in Delhi and Rajasthan. The 35-mm film is Rewal’s first foray into feature films. The fictional take-off is about a producer and the struggle he wages to get his film on air. Woven in the comedy are gentle references to a public service broadcaster which goes by the name of Bharat Television.
Kher believes the board must have had its reasons. ‘‘The Censor Board is not the Government. It is made of people drawn from all walks of life and when the board raises objections, it must have reasons for doing so,’’ he says.
