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Yes to Porn, No to Peace
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
By Ammu Joseph
The Indian Express

It [film “Jang Aur Aman” (AKA “War and Peace”) 2001]brings home the fact that there are hawks and doves everywhere, including in India and Pakistan. It argues that religious ‘fundamentalism’ and jingoistic ‘patriotism’ are two sides of the same coin. It is a timely forewarning about the dangers of nuclear war. For all the gravity of the subject and its hard-hitting, if indirect, commentary on warmongers, the film comes through as essentially humane, focusing on the desire among people for peace in both India and Pakistan.

Promote pornography, censor peace. This appears to be the new credo of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), judging by recent information on the Censor Board’s line of thinking. According to a recent front page report in this newspaper, the CBFC is toying with the idea of introducing special categories for pornographic films and allowing X- or R-rated movies to be shown without cuts in specially designated halls.

This may be just a minor element in the Board’s presumably more broad-based attempts to update the Cinematograph Act, 1952, which dates back half a century and could certainly do with transformation. The merits and demerits of this proposal will no doubt be hotly debated, not only by those with concerns about the impact of pornography on gender relations, but by the self-appointed culture police who have in recent years taken to imposing censorship by mob on anything that does not fit its narrow views.

A more urgent concern is the possibility that the proposed liberalisation of the censorship regime may not extend to the political content of cinema. The recent experience of well-known documentary filmmaker, Anand Patwardhan, indicates that the CBFC may not be able, or willing, to free itself from the shackles of political correctness, as defined by the government of the day. According to a press release issued some days ago by Patwardhan, the CBFC has called for as many as six cuts in his award-winning documentary film, War and Peace. Of the major cuts demanded, the most astounding is this: the deletion of all visuals and dialogues in the film of political leaders in the film, including that of the prime minister and other ministers.
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2002 © The Indian Express.

Dan