Skip to main content

Needed: A Vishwaroopam and a Few Answers

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.

Comments

Shayri said…
Kamal Hasan has rightly moved to the Court.Art and Culture should not be allowed to be dictated for political gains.
JRSD said…
I was pessimistic about our political class before and now I am disillusioned. I am now very much sure that though some pea size brained chimps rake up an issue, it was the responsibility of Govt to knock some sanity into their heads. Decision of HCs change as frequently as the ruling parties, no use blaming them knowing what political clout can do. The country is in the wrong hands and the worst part is it seems to be the way it will be for the next few years atleast. We must consider ourselves lucky if we dont live long enough to see anarchy in India. Like a dialogue goes in Rang De Basanti - Politics is a "depressing nonsense" (especially in India). We retained our optimism with SRT's straight blade all these years, and suddenly now it is also coming to an end. God save us.
G Saimukundhan said…
@ Shayri,

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
G Saimukundhan said…
@ JRSD

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

Popular posts from this blog

Open Letter to the President, ICAI

Dear President, The substance of this letter is the state of examination and evaluation system of our Institute's qualifying exams. The recently declared result is just the tipping point, and not the substance of this letter. Let this communique not be misconstrued as demanding a revamp merely because the results have been pathetically low. This open letter would have probably been drafted still, even if the results threw out an extremely student friendly outcome of say 100% Pass. Before I move on to present my points, I would like to state that I have been a firm believer of assertion that you get only what you deserve. A person who got "100 Marks" deserved that "100 Marks". And a student who got "0 Marks", deserved that as well. As someone who got both the above extremes during my academic days, I have maintained the above assertion with a certain degree of understanding and conviction. I also would like to make it clear right at the ou

Covid and The End of Kerala Model?

That Kerala has been often quoted as a "Model State" is a fact. Based on many metrics, many economists and social welfare analysts have often singled out Kerala for its high per capita, the higher literacy rate, their land reforms, higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality etc. In essence, its better social infrastructure has been its key selling point as a "Model State". Wikipedia has a whole page dedicated to the "Kerala Model". There is also a segment which reproduces an opinion which says that it is the world's most sustainable model. I am not here to contest any of that. This post tries to look at the Post Covid world and how the so called "Kerala Model" may account for nothing in the absence of a strong local / domestic economy. When you think of Kerala, you think of the famous tagline "God's Own Country", which it is truly. Filled with natural landscapes which are beautiful and magical, a trip to Kerala wil

The Terminal Date

Chapter 1 - The Meet - Now " Thambi , don't you have change? Don't you even think it is unfair to give 2000 rupee note for a bottle of water?" "Sorry Anna . Have only Rs.15 otherwise." Elan was wondering what other options he has. Return the bottle? Go to the next shop? Go to the ATM at the CMBT's concourse to withdraw some cash? 'Have to rule it out. ATM will rule it out.' "Anna, Can I use Paytm to make the payment?" "For Rs.20?" "I will pay Rs.100. You can give me some change also." "I don't trust these things. And even I don't have any change to return. Either you pay Rs.20 or leave. Its 12 in the night and I have no mood to argue." Elan kept the bottle on top of the boxes with butter biscuits and was about to leave, when he heard "I can give you change." It sounded familiar. He turned to his right to find a familiar face. The girl who lived opposite to his house at Nerku