The entire episode surrounding delaying and the eventual banning of Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam has once again showed how religious bigotry and baseless paranoia overrides plain common sense and prudent business sense.
Actions of both the theatre owners and certain leaders of muslim organisations demonstrate that sense of intolerance towards anything that doesn't have their blessing from the very beginning. I am just looking for a few answers to my questions.
Questions to the Religious Heads / Representatives (Including Organisations representing all communities)
Question 1:
Can a few select individuals, calling themselves as leaders of a community, actually represent the entire view of a community? Now most of these leaders aren't even elected leaders!
Question 2:
Admittedly, most terror groups are operating out of Afganisthan and Pakistan. I guess this is documented enough. And simply because they belong to these regions, most of them are Muslims by birth. That being so, how is one supposed to identify such a "character" in movies? Mr. X?
Question 3:
I am pretty sure, like all movie makers who try to be politically correct, Kamal Hassan would have some strong positive muslim characters central to the entire movie. Why would one like to identify himself / herself with the negative character, instead of that positive character?
Question 4:
If the judge reverses the order banning the release of the movie, will the seekers of ban respect the Court ruling of the land, of which they are part of? Will they be able to control the "artificially created rage of their followers"?
Question 5:
If after the movie is released, assuming it is released, the movie turns out to be a huge hit, and by some means it is shown that most muslims actually liked the movie, and had nothing to object against the movie, will the so called "representatives" eat their words, and stuff all their holes and retire?
Questions to the Government and Judiciary
Question 1:
If such few select individuals can actually decide whether a movie can be released or not, why the fuck are we having the Censor Board?! Why don't we wind up the entire division?
Question 2:
When the Supreme Court of India in the case relating to Prakash Jha had ruled that the moment Censor Board had certified the movies, every Government should abide by the decision, can the Government really go against the ruling of the highest court of the Country?
Question 3:
Governments are known to take stupid decisions to protect their electoral interest. Judiciary is supposed to go by facts, evidences and precedents set in previous rulings, can a lower court actually "ignore" the rulings, a precedent, of the Highest Court of the land?
Questions To The Theatre Owners Question 1:
Good quality pirated CDs which are available for thirty bucks and torrent downloads which are available for free, and many movies still make so much amount of money in the theatres. With a single DTH show priced at Rs.1000, how are theatre owners so sure of shutting their business, which they could profitably operate with alternatives at far lower cost?
Question 2:
Now if the movie is not aired through DTH, and the entire public actually watches the movie in the cinema halls, would the patrons be treated with some clean toilets, water bottles priced at MRP, air conditioners switched on throughout the movie, movies started on time, parking attendants and theatre attendants handling / managing the drunk bastards properly and stopping them from entering the hall?
Question 3:
If we decide to watch the movie at Cinema hall, and desire to book the tickets through net, will we still be charged "Convenience Charges" ranging more than 20% of the ticket's base price?
Question 4:
With Tamilians spread all across the globe, and most Tamil movies not getting released in their places, how are movie makers supposed to reach those audiences? Will theatres in Tamil Nadu screen a Bengali movie or a Bhojpuri movie for a group of say, 1000 audiences?
Question 5:
DTH model of broadcasting a movie is obviously a new business model. And lot of theatres have been shut down in the past many years. What prompted such shut downs?
If all it takes for a movie to be banned is the whims and fancies of a few bigoted individuals, then we really cannot call ourselves as civilized. Every civilized society has a set up, system and a structure. If one cannot abide such civilized set up, he should go live among animals, where he'll find his match.
Questions to the Religious Heads / Representatives (Including Organisations representing all communities)
Question 1:
Can a few select individuals, calling themselves as leaders of a community, actually represent the entire view of a community? Now most of these leaders aren't even elected leaders!
Question 2:
Admittedly, most terror groups are operating out of Afganisthan and Pakistan. I guess this is documented enough. And simply because they belong to these regions, most of them are Muslims by birth. That being so, how is one supposed to identify such a "character" in movies? Mr. X?
Question 3:
I am pretty sure, like all movie makers who try to be politically correct, Kamal Hassan would have some strong positive muslim characters central to the entire movie. Why would one like to identify himself / herself with the negative character, instead of that positive character?
Question 4:
If the judge reverses the order banning the release of the movie, will the seekers of ban respect the Court ruling of the land, of which they are part of? Will they be able to control the "artificially created rage of their followers"?
Question 5:
If after the movie is released, assuming it is released, the movie turns out to be a huge hit, and by some means it is shown that most muslims actually liked the movie, and had nothing to object against the movie, will the so called "representatives" eat their words, and stuff all their holes and retire?
Questions to the Government and Judiciary
Question 1:
If such few select individuals can actually decide whether a movie can be released or not, why the fuck are we having the Censor Board?! Why don't we wind up the entire division?
Question 2:
When the Supreme Court of India in the case relating to Prakash Jha had ruled that the moment Censor Board had certified the movies, every Government should abide by the decision, can the Government really go against the ruling of the highest court of the Country?
Question 3:
Governments are known to take stupid decisions to protect their electoral interest. Judiciary is supposed to go by facts, evidences and precedents set in previous rulings, can a lower court actually "ignore" the rulings, a precedent, of the Highest Court of the land?
Questions To The Theatre Owners Question 1:
Good quality pirated CDs which are available for thirty bucks and torrent downloads which are available for free, and many movies still make so much amount of money in the theatres. With a single DTH show priced at Rs.1000, how are theatre owners so sure of shutting their business, which they could profitably operate with alternatives at far lower cost?
Question 2:
Now if the movie is not aired through DTH, and the entire public actually watches the movie in the cinema halls, would the patrons be treated with some clean toilets, water bottles priced at MRP, air conditioners switched on throughout the movie, movies started on time, parking attendants and theatre attendants handling / managing the drunk bastards properly and stopping them from entering the hall?
Question 3:
If we decide to watch the movie at Cinema hall, and desire to book the tickets through net, will we still be charged "Convenience Charges" ranging more than 20% of the ticket's base price?
Question 4:
With Tamilians spread all across the globe, and most Tamil movies not getting released in their places, how are movie makers supposed to reach those audiences? Will theatres in Tamil Nadu screen a Bengali movie or a Bhojpuri movie for a group of say, 1000 audiences?
Question 5:
DTH model of broadcasting a movie is obviously a new business model. And lot of theatres have been shut down in the past many years. What prompted such shut downs?
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If all it takes for a movie to be banned is the whims and fancies of a few bigoted individuals, then we really cannot call ourselves as civilized. Every civilized society has a set up, system and a structure. If one cannot abide such civilized set up, he should go live among animals, where he'll find his match.
Comments
As we had seen in the Court ruling, the decision of the court to uphold the ban only proved that Courts are no more than stooges to the ruling class in most matters. They too play the role of "Secular" citing law and order situation.
Though the Kamal's action was right to approach the Court, we have seen what transpired later. He was criticized for the same, and later he decided not to move ahead legally simply because of pressing financial commitments and CM's intervention!
GSM
Your observations are spot on, and you have pretty much expressed in words what I have been struggling for months together. This country has gone to the dogs (and bitches), and there seems no redemption.
The only escape from this utter nonsense / chaos, was entertainment and sports. And considering the fact the same political class is influencing these two, we are pretty much staring at hopelessness.
GSM