Cinema under siege

I know much has been said about this issue with people on either side of the fence/glass calling each other names in the name of holding their line right. However I couldn't resist because the issue seems to be in a limelight again. I would refrain from commenting upon what much bigger names have already spoken about. But lets take a few examples to put things in a perspective first

1) Black Friday is getting released after a wait of years due to the "sensitive" topic it covered (or the matter of fact way it showed the real life incidents)
2) Parzania, despite being cleared from censors is still struggling to get the approval from "local censors" (It needs clearance from the local Bajrang Dal leader to be released in Gujarat)

What does it reflect? Reflection upon us as a state and as a society. While we progress economically where are we headed socially? What is the new social fabric that we are weaving and what are the prints that we are leaving on it?

These are some questions that keep disturbing me in the current scenario. It disturbs me to note that perhaps we as a nation are growing increasingly intolerant. Intolerant towards a thought process that strives to bring us face to face with reality. In the beauty of our dreams we are so engrossed that any attempt to jolt us into reality becomes nothing less than a crime. As time and again we have failed to learn from history, it revisits us to tell us the fact that how scared we are to look into the darker truths.

There is nothing wrong in it perhaps. Human nature by instinct is to deny the truth when its ugly. Noone after all feels comfortable if the mirror shows us naked. Serious cinema, unfortunately serves that precise purpose. Occasionally when an artist (read filmmaker) feels disturbed he comes up with an expression to remind us of what we might not recall in daily chores. And therein lies its "crime". And so it has to face the consequences like these.

Have we become paranoid or is it just that our confidence in our own sensibilities is so low that we can't be sure of our own reactions? Have we ceased to discern between a cinematic expression and a threat to peace?

History tells us that greater heights were reached by the nations who didn't hesitate to look into the eyes of their own mistakes. Because they learned from them and didn't commit them again. They didn't put their head in sand like Ostrich. They progressed because of freedom of thought and action not despite it.

Another thing that actually worries me on this is the failure of state machinery to let the order of law prevail. I mean, what is the requirement of censor if you have to send out a message that there is another almighty who reserves the right to let your expression reach the masses. So much for freedom of expression.

Still, all is not lost. The fact that tomorrow will not actually be Black Friday. It will after all get the rightful place it deserved. Anand patwardhan's documentaries have finally been shown on DD. So in those shimmering lights of hope I still dream of a nation which will actually be sensible enough to understand all the sensibilities and let them be expressed.

To cut it short I would end with this ..

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.
-- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty