Dear CBFC, in the age of Internet how relevant is it to censor things?

AshFlash

Editor

posted on 8 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Ladies and gentlemen, ‘Lunch’, ‘Indian Figure’, ‘Sarkaar’ are now bad words and can have a bad influence on the youth of this country. Or so thinks our honourable Censor board which decided to silence these words from director Pan Nalin’s ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’.

India’s first female buddy film has seven leading ladies on a bachelorette trip to Goa where over a period of time, secrets tumble out, old rivalries are sorted out and personal problems are addressed. The trip turns out to be a life changing one for the women in more ways than one.

The conversations are free flowing throughout the film but when you watch the film on the big screen, there are abrupt silences in between the dialogues at regular intervals and some hamper the film’s narrative even. Like the time when the girls are gaping at Jo (Amrit Maghera) dancing at the backyard of their house and in between discuss butts and the typical Indian figure. Those words are repeated often in that short scene but they are all muted and what ultimately is shown on the big screen does not make sense. We, as audience, are left to assume and guess.

Similarly, a scene where Mad (Anushka Manchanda) places a Kali’s poster at the corner of their room, the image of the goddess is blurred. Instead you are left wondering why the camera is focusing on Anushka’s posterior. It’s only later when she is talking about the Goddess and the camera pans over the blurred image one more time that you realise what the Censor board has done.

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For a long time, Indian films have been muting cuss words. While I understand censorship on foul language and nudity- considering the huge impact cinema has in our country- I am not quite sure why words like ‘Lunch’ or ‘State’ have to be censored, even if they’re used in a certain context.

Besides, ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ has got an ‘A’ rating. That itself does not allow the younger audience to view it. So Censorship on an already ‘A’ rated film is really not required.

In the age of Internet, where everything is available online, how relevant is it censor things? Do the esteemed members of the CBFC realise that what they are banning on the big screen is easily available on the Internet? That too without cuts!

The censorship just hampers the films narrative in a major way. So many scenes are randomly cut out. So many important dialogues and points are missed out because the words are muted. A character’s screen time has been altered to a great length simply because she uses a lot of abuses in the film. A scene where the girls are discussing the nation’s obsession for fairness cream has been omitted as well. It has Pam (Pavleen Gujral) stating that Krishna is dark skinned and acceptable because he is a man. That scene has been omitted from the film.

Interestingly, the same board has passed songs like ‘Pani wala dance’ and ‘Daddy Mummy’, which are full of sexual innuendos, in this past year. Those songs are chartbusters and played often at parties and clubs. Little children dance happily to these songs at weddings as elders beam and clap indulgently. These songs do not create bad influence of course. But speaking about the state’s role in banning same sex marriage in the country sure does.

We are a society full of lecherous prudes. Where a ‘Grand Masti’ makes Rs 100 crores and runs to packed theatres but a film about 7 spunky women, speaking about real issues, needs censorship.

In a democratic country, perhaps it is time to let every form of art facilitate creativity for the future generation. Because otherwise we are just encouraging mediocre and substandard work to flourish and that is never good for a society.