Self-appointed moral police
Nagamallika G.
Parzania (2005) is not likely to be the last in the series of films to be banned in recent times, nor Black Friday (2004), made with the Mumbai blasts of 1993 as the background for the stories to unfold. While Parzania was based on a true story of an inDIVidual family¿s search for their lost son during the Gujarat riots of 2002, the many documented lives that lived and lost in Black Friday were equally real. There seems to be a growing intolerance towards anything that questions the basic humanitarian values, and most surprisingly in India that prides herself on DIVersity and tolerance.
The self appointed moral police seem to be working overtime, where the thin line between personal and ideological has seamlessly merged with a confusion of values rather, sans values, where an innocent and purely personal opinion of Aamir Khan, had left his film Fanaa (2006) exposed to the very same moral police, which threatened the distributors of dire consequences if released. The criminalisation of politics left the common man with no choice but to accept this demand and if possible cut the losses and toe the lakshman rekha. While the intolerance has no rhyme or reason, the madness of these crowds who destroy theatres and burn down effigies, cannot be termed purely temporary either, as what we are witnessing is communal politics at play in a covert fashion. It is simply not a coincidence that most of these bans have been called for in Gujarat. By forcing these fatwas, the last breath of freedom that is struggling to find space in the ¿Hindutva laboratory¿, is slowly choking and may soon die of asphyxiation. The last few warriors left in the battle field, are being smothered under these bans.
These seeds of communal intolerance, sowed over the last three decades, have slowly spread their roots with the ban on the shooting of Water in Varanasi, citing law and order problem, or the ban on Tamil films and television channels in Karnataka during the recent spat on the Cauvery issue. Tamil films and television channels were sought to be banned to show the solidarity of the hurt Kannadiga pride.
In the not so distant past, it was religion and religious issues that often excited these moral police. They however, have now expanded their territorial rights into the ¿cultural realm¿. ¿Indian culture¿ is in danger and that is the reason we have to beat up couples who celebrate Valentine¿s day and burn cards and card shops that sell gifts and cards for Valentine¿s day. In fact, this malaise has now become global, with similar call for bans over the release of The Da Vinci Code (2006) and an earlier film ¿The Last temptation of Jesus Christ¿ (1988).
Soft targets like films, film personalities or media personalities are easy to bully and pushed around most of the time. The politicians have found new pawns in their game of hatred and clamour for power. We have a Jaya Bacchan battling her way in the Rajya Sabha membership issue, while Shabana Azmi¿s statement regarding the veil irked quite a few.
As we can see, all is not lost, as we find some lone soldiers battling it out, taking the so called proverbial bull by the horns and just refusing to give in. Deepa Mehta and her ¿Water¿ (2005) is a case in point. She has completed her vision and painted it on a beautiful canvas, although she was not allowed to shoot in India, and bravely dug in her heels and stood tall and straight, bearing the threats to her life and huge financial losses that she suffered. And her enormous effort paid off with her walking away as the Canadian official entry for Oscar foreign film category. Even if she did not win she already emerged a winner, despite the burning of her effigies and not allowing Water to be released in India even now.
Isn¿t it high time that these self-styled moral police introspect and ponder over their own attitude towards life and death, and their role in the mindless violence they seem to unleash, where two wrongs need not make one right. Even cursory thinking on their part would surely make clear the political machinations at play, where they are merely being used and abused in a larger scheme of things beyond their means. Or is it simply the work of guilty minds who do not want the bitter truth of hatred to be made into a public spectacle which is beyond even their conscience? Probably we need more than one Gandhi today.