Is there a
cultural emergency in India?
Most of the media seems to concur on that after Kamal Haasan’s Viswaroopam was
kept out of most theaters in India
while it took a grand opening in many parts of the world. Even though we cannot
see or hear it, the world could very well be laughing at us; at the fact that
we are too narrow minded to differentiate between a great work of art and a
petty-minded jibe at a religion. Would anyone be crazy enough or a big enough
religious fanatic to put in all their life’s savings, two years of work and a
huge reputation at stake just to take a dig at a religion? And, if there is a
small group of people who think this way, should their voices be heeded to and
given so much importance that the work of art itself be banned? This incident
opens a Pandora’s Box of questions, the least of which is the question of how
big or how old a group or organization or movement should be before it is
considered representative of a community.
But, those questions
cannot be answered in an emotionally charged time period. Decisions made at
such times are bound to be wrong. Instead, we should be asking ourselves
whether, in the process of exercising the fundamental right of protesting, a
group should be allowed to come in the way of ‘business as usual’. In this
specific case, the release of Viswaroopam was put off by a minimum of 4 days.
Now, this might look like a pretty small period, but in the business of cinema,
these 4 days means a huge amount of money. And, it is not just Kamal Haasan’s
money that is being held at gun point here. All people who commercially
associated themselves with Viswaroopam at some level or the other must be
facing troubled time now, which includes distributors and exhibitors. If you care
to imagine the number of people who’s calculations would have been upset by
this 4-day delay, just by counting the number of distribution territories and
theaters in Tamil Nadu, you might be able to gauge the real far-reaching impact
of this ban – its not just about Kamal Haasan. It’s a big industry’s applecart
that has been upset, and it is tough to imagine that the government bowed down
to demands without making an effort to protect (in some cases) the livelihoods
of people. This is not like asking an art exhibition to close down or a song to
change its lines. Cinema is an industry first and the government must
understand that there are far more livelihoods at stake than what appears to
the eye. And to think our CM was in the showbiz herself!
And, it does not stop with Viswaroopam; the
effects are going to cascade on to the well-laid out release plans of so many
movies to follow, leaving theaters in quandary about which movie to accommodate
and which agreement to honor. Really, it’s a roll of dice to find out who comes
out unscathed from this and who gets crushed. But, we can be sure that the
likelihood of someone getting hurt really badly is a very distinct probability.
I wonder what the government would have to say if they decide to take to the
streets.
Finally, a
desire to see some accountability! Our country grants us the fundamental
rights, and we cannot and don’t want to change that. But, are fundamental
rights being twisted, turned and misused in a way that we lose sight of what
they were actually made for. Shouldn’t there be accountability along with the
right. Let’s say that someone files a PIL against a movie and gets it stayed or
banned or whatever he/she pleases to. If upon investigation, the allegations
are found to be hollow and baseless, will the complainant be subject to
judiciary-initiated proceedings for misusing the fundamental rights? Will
he/she or the organization be held responsible for the losses incurred? Not at
the moment. In the current set up, someone files a PIL, causes a whole lot of
ruckus and costs someone crores of rupees and then gets to walk away. We need a
provision where the complainant cannot walk away, but will have to stay,
explain and pay up if found guilty. Let’s then see how many people call for
bans.
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