Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has done well to deny media reports that the government had asked the police to study Aamir Khan’s film PK to determine if it offends religious sentiments. Reports that he had asked for such an inquiry had provoked sharp criticism. He has made it clear that since the censor board has cleared the film, there is no question of not letting it be screened and the government will ensure that law and order is maintained.
There have been too many occasions when the authorities have been bullied by narrow-minded activists either to secure a certificate from politicians before a film is shown or to ensure some of its portions are cut. In the first category are films like Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995), which was vetted by Bal Thackeray before release, and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang de Basanti (2006), which was seen by then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee. That both were subsequently widely acclaimed and won awards showed that the objections of bigoted protesters were meaningless. Among films whose scenes were cut after brief ban on its release was Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam (2013). It, too, received several awards.
Just as books are banned or sought to be banned like Rushdie’s Satanic Verses or James Laine’s biography of Shivaji, or an artist like M F Husain has to live and die in exile because of the ire aroused by his paintings, films, too, become the soft targets of blinkered naysayers if a film-maker ventures beyond the routine song-and-dance melodrama and deals with complex topical subjects. Just as Atal Behari Vajpayee said that the answer to Laine’s biography was not a ban but to write a credible rejoinder, similarly, those offended by a film can either not see it or post a point-by-point rebuttal of its theme. A ban or vandalism is not the answer if only because that is a sign of intolerance and shows the country in a poor light.
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