Smriti Irani made much ado about NOT playing a nautch girl in one of the serials of Ekta Kapoor and insisted on doing another sober character! This news was flashed in papers too.
This was obviously because of Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam’s crack about her in a TV debate. In the charged atmosphere, with parliamentary elections in 2014 and everyone (including women’s organizations) wanting his share of attention Sanjay’s remark blew into a controversy.
BJP decided to boycott any forum where Sanjay would be a participant. They wanted an apology. They would sort it out with an unsaid understanding of co-survival but I notice that politicians have a complex love-hate relationship with nautankuwala.
Sanjay Nirupam tells me, “Maine aisa kya galat kah deeya? In fact, if you’d see the recording you’ll notice she was not behaving properly, was not showing proper respect to a man who has been in serious politics for 15 years!”
Sanjay Nirupam was with Indian Express before being ‘chosen’ by Bal Thackeray as the editor of Dopahar Ka Saamna (Marathi Saamna’s Hindi version) and nominated to Parliament. Nirupam never looked back and strengthening his grassroots got elected, defeating Ram Naik of the BJP. Naik was a hardcore politician who had won five consecutive times from this constituency before being defeated by actor Govinda. He contested again, this time, against Sanjay Nirupam. And lost!
Samriti Irani, on the other hand, was a waitress and a floor sweeper in ‘McDonalds’ before becoming an actress in Ekta’s tabela. She was popular as Tulsi in Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi but lost the elections when BJP gave her the ticket.
Sushil Kumar Shinde echoed similar contempt for film actresses when he snubbed Jaya Bachchan in Parliament, snapping at her, “This is a serious matter. This is not the subject of a film.” He was irritated when Jaya interrupted him when he was replying to a short duration debate on Assam violence. Jaya being Jaya, Shinde had to eat his words. But his attitude towards film actresses was clearly established.
Sanjay Nirupam and Sushil Kumar Shinde are in good company. Films and acting have always been considered nautanki and a vice.
Mahatma Gandhi had never seen a single film in his life and included cinema among the list of vices like betting, gambling and horse racing, drinking alcohol and is on record as declining to even express his views on the ‘sinful technology’ that was imported from west.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the modern face of India, had a more practical approach. He’d use the influence this medium had, even got Prithviraj Kapoor and Nargis nominated to Parliament and encouraged Raj Kapoor’s films that carried ‘social messages’.
I analyze this to the beginning of films in India. No respectable family allowed the girls to work in films. Even the boys were discouraged from entering films. The filmmakers had to make do with dancing girls (tawaifs).
The actor fraternity have done little to change the public perception. I remember a couplet:
Hum kothon se filmon mein aayein aur izzat payee
Aur in izzatdaar ladkiyon ne apne gharon ko kotha banaa diya
(We came from brothels and earned respect / and these respectable girls turned their homes into brothels)
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I remember the first novel that set the guilt-free path of my life. It was a book by Bhagwati Charan Varma. Written in 1934, this novel is about sin and virtue, paap and punya. It is semi-fictional story based in the days of Chandragupta Maurya.
It is about the beliefs of a minister in Chandragupta’s court, Bijgupta and a beautiful dancer and young widow, Chitralekha and the faith of a hermit Kumargiri. Kumargiri, though a sanyasi, falls in love with Chitralekha and becomes the victim of life and time.
Meena Kumari – in a film made by Kidar Sharma – brought the character to life and the song, “Sansar se bhaage phirte ho, Bhagvan ko tum kyaa paaoge? / is lok ko bhi apnaa na sake, us lok mein bhii pachataaoge. (You flee from the world, how will you find God?
You didn’t consider this world as your own, and you will repent it in that world.)
Ye paap hai kyaa, ye punya hai kyaa? / riton par dharm ki mohare hain / Har yug mein badalte dharmon ko kaise aadarsh banaaoge? (What is sin and what is virtue? Rites are labeled religion/ How can you make ideal of the periodically changing values?)
Yeh bhog bhi ek tapsaya hai, tum tyaag ke maare kyaa jaano? / Apaman rachetaa kaa hogaa, rachnaa ko agar Thukraaoge.
(This pleasure too is a form of penance; what do you know the victim of self-denials? / You insult the creator when you reject his creation)”
Hinduism considers cow eating a sin, but followers of Islam relish beef. Eating pork is forbidden in Islam but a part of Christian lifestyle! This is why at I eat anything that walks (except human beings).
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