On the surface, the idea of having a wing exclusively for developing and promoting films ‘themed on Indian tradition’, as announced by Mithlesh Kumar Tripathi, the convener of the art and culture cell of the BJP seems harmless. But, as a writer, I’m wary of any interference / influence on cinema or for that matter, any other mode of expression.
BJP is not the only party that wants to propagate Indian values in its cinema. Congress and Marxists have used the cinema in pursuit of similar goals with their private agenda. Jawaharlal Nehru encouraged Raj Kapoor to propagate his brand of socialism that glorified Soviet Russia. Lal Bahadur Shastri asked Manoj Kumar to turn his slogan (Jai Jawan Jai Kissan) into a movie and Upkaar was born. Nehru was also instrumental in getting Haqeeqat a propaganda film made by Chetan Anand; a film that puffed up India’s defeat at the hands of China in an avoidable war.
Mrs Indira Gandhi got Manoj Kumar to start work on Naya Bharat to justify and glorify the draconian emergency. Kumar got Javed Akhtar to write the script. Fortunately for Manoj and Javed, the emergency was lifted much before the film could be made.
Keep your hands off the content of the films!
Encouraging any form of art with grants and awards, incentives and facilities is encouraging the culture of bhaands.
The big filmmakers who make films like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge, who are making pots of money, don’t need these grants and awards. The smaller ones would find themselves compromising, towing a particular line to woo the awards.
If you, as a government want the Indian filmmaker to compete with his counterparts in other countries – provide an infrastructure. Free him from the clutches of the distributors who control the theaters, and therefore the filmmakers. A good film by a small maker can’t reach the audience as the multiplexes control the screens. They have their own interests to look for. It is easier to make a pile from simultaneous release on 3000 screens even from a third class film with a couple of stars. All they need is the right marketing and publicity; content be damned.
These distributors and exhibitors have created another culture of bhaands; the filmmakers who just cater to the lowest common denominator making films like Grand Masti.
A government run chain of small theaters, each with a capacity of 300-500, spread all over the country would give a chance to the small, independent filmmaker – a chance to make good cinema, a chance to compete at the world level.
Whatever these filmmakers – other creative people – make is going to be a part of Indian culture.
Knowing how the over-enthusiastic and often culturally uneducated wannabes hijack ideas, it is important to analyze the idea of ‘Indian tradition’ and ‘Indian culture’. If the idea is to have a conservative presentation of women or a military boot on depiction of erotic scenes, the BJP and its art and cultural cell will have to do a rethink. I’m also writing with reference to the U turn of the Central Board of Film Certification in the recent times. It is slowly returning to the dark days of stone age.
The Censorship has never been a Hindu idea!
Hindu is a free thinking, all accommodating religion. There is no place for censorship in Hindu religion.
This is why, unlike a rigid control on the religious books in other religions, we have had over 300 versions of Ramayana and an equal number of differing narrations of Mahabharata.
This is why, India has a rich tradition of Shrangaar Rasa and eroticism in arts and I’m not referring to the more popular references of Kamasutra and Khajuraho.
Between 4th to 7th century, several prominent Sanskrit poets and playwrights have celebrated erotic writing.
Kalidas, one of the greatest Sanskrit poets, described Parvati’s beauty and her love story in Kumarasambhavam: Anyonyam utpidayat utpalakshyah stana dvayam pandu tatha pravridham, madhye yatha shyam mukhasya tasya mrinal sutrantam api alabhayam (Parvati’s eyes has the beauty of a lotus flower and she has large breasts with dark nipples in the middle. Her breasts touch each other so tightly that not even a single thread of a fine fiber from the stalk of the lotus plant can pass between them).”
In the same Kumarasambhavam, he described Parvati’s belly: Madhyen sa vedi vilagna madhya valitrayam charu babhar bala, arohanartham nav yauvanen Kamasya sopanam iva prayuktam (Slender Parvati donned three muscle packs so developed by her youth that Kamadeva, using her muscle packs as a ladder, could climb to the higher reaches of her body.”
Such references even go back to the days of Rig Veda, 5000 years ago.
Writing this wouldn’t have been possible if people like the chief of right wing outfit Sri Ram Sena, Pramod Muthalik, who joined BJP had existed in that period.
These people need to be taught that it is the Church-inspired enthusiasm of the Victorian era that imposed restrictions on the so-called ‘amorous degradation’ by propagating Western ‘morality’ and ‘values’.
P.S. I don’t see why a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge should be considered a film that depicts Indian value system but that is something I’ll write in another blog.
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