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| Akshay Kumar in and as Tees Maar Khan |
When actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan launched his film Billu Barber a couple of years ago, barbers protested. The actor, having duly removed the word barber from the title, joked that he hoped a 'Billu' would not turn up to protest! Well, this time round, for director Farah Khan's Tees Maar Khan, the censor board seemed to have had similar fears as it objected to the name Sheila (in the song Sheila ki Jawaani) and display of Sheila's belly-button. While the two survived, it has beeped out the word 'tawaif' in a dialogue.
From art to cinema and literature, India has often come down on creative freedom. Not long ago, we lost celebrated painter MF Hussain to Qatar as the Hindutva hate campaign escalated back home, and removed Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey, which had been shortlisted for the Booker from the literature syllabus of Mumbai University. Faced with the threat of riots and revenue losses, filmmakers and other creative artists are often forced to bow before the rabble-rousers.
Says Shamshad Hussain, painter and MF Hussain's son, "My father was targeted for being successful and a Muslim. The authorities don't understand art. At one point, our studio was raided and my brother's artwork was taken away, mistaking it to be my father's. Politics should not be mixed with art."
Can we have a book like The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ written and published in India? How free are we, really, when it comes to creativity Says VK Karthika, publisher & chief editor, HarperCollins India, "I don't think there is anything at all to be gained by banning a book, and certainly not for the reason that it might provoke or hurt a community. Thankfully, there are very few books/writers who have suffered a stay or a ban for reasons other than allegations of personal libel.
"When Hindi writer Yashpal wrote the novel Jhootha Sach in 1958,he was passed over for the Sahitya Akademi Award given by the government because of the criticism of the Congress and of Jawaharlal Nehru. The anti-establishment rebel was finally bestowed the Padma Bhushan in 1970. Says Anand, Yashpal's son, "Eventually, the same administration recognised the book's importance and, among other honours, had government institutions translate it into all the official languages of India. For me, this is the proof that censorship and curbs on free speech may suppress the creative spirit and the voice of the people for some time, but that voice and spirit cannot be silenced for all time. "Sridhar Rangayan knows how it is to live and work on the fringes as a gay activist and filmmaker. His film The Pink Mirror, an unapologetic view of the life of drag queens, was rejected by the censors in 2003.
With his next film Emotionally Yours, he avoided the censors and India, and screened the film abroad. Both films are hits on the international festival circuit. Says Sridhar, "They found the content too in-your-face, but that's exactly how drag queens are in reality. My characters were also comfortable in their skin and not looking for any kind of redemption, a fact the censors could not digest. They go by the book and can't rise above it. "However, filmmaker and theatreperson Feroz Khan, makes a case of differentiating between genuine dissent and a buzz to garner publicity for a cause. He says, "There is a very fine balance. Nothing could have been more wonderfully orchestrated than a young man ( Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray's grandson Aditya) wanting to be politically baptized, a spineless vice chancellor almost conniving to be part of it, the media feeding into it and the funniest part, ultimately, the boy is baptized, the book is banned from the curriculum and its sales are up!"
He adds, "Artists are sitting ducks. During the My Name is Khan controversy, the government backed the movie's release. Many others don't get that. Is the state going to protect you I don't think so."
Dissent may not be a bad thing, but it's important to choose the cause well!
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