Kuch tum kaho, kuch hum kahein

The government plans to reintroduce a provision in the Cinematograph Act (earlier held unconstitutional by Supreme Court), that will allow it to recall/reverse a decision of the Censor Board itself! Representation pic

Fellow film critic Namrata Joshi posted on social media an instruction manual, along with preview link of a show called Grahan, that she received last week. I'm presuming from the PR/publicity team of Disney+Hotstar. On? How to review the said series!

The gist of which was, "Kindly do not connect the show to any current or past situations/activities around political happenings... We are happy to hear your views on aspects of the show, like dialogue, cinematography, etc." Have read only one review of Grahan thus far. At no point does it mention that it's based on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Bokaro - which is absolutely the only point of the show!

Clearly it's the screener I felt no fomo for. What with a note by a producer/platform, that itself has green-lit and released the series; let alone what they'll make in the future? What could call for this?

Perhaps, fear generated from a culture of FIRs and harassment from the state? That, only recently, the head honchos of Amazon Prime Video had to go through - over a light-weight, moronic series like Tandav, that nobody would've cared for otherwise.

Shortly thereafter the government imposed a new set of IT rules, with no precedence in a mature/real democracy, placing Internet censorship under its direct ambit, specifically OTT content, social media, and online news.

A law so heavily loaded in favour of complaints from the offended, who create nothing, as against those who do - that surely any Ramesh/Suresh could be pissed off by Mona Lisa's smile, and that's good enough reason for Da Vinci to not exist!

The creator can keep taking rounds of government offices/committees. This, in the same week that Italy altogether banned film censorship. With films for theatrical release, the government disbanded the Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (FCAT).

Which, usually headed by a retired judge, used to be the final resort for a filmmaker - miffed by a decision of the government-appointed Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC/Censor Board). A place to go to - before running to courts, right before a release, and incurring hefty legal fees that inevitably follow. FCAT is gone.

Now the government plans to reintroduce a provision in the Cinematograph Act (earlier held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court), that will allow it to recall/reverse a decision of the Censor Board itself! Basically the state can unilaterally ban what they like (or don't).

Who will take that call? Another government committee; or an overpowering individual? In which case, why's there a Censor Board?

The controlling impulse of the complicit political class is so complete, that I haven't heard a strong, challenging viewpoint to this, even from parties that are not in power. TINA (There is no alternative) factor applies all right!

Besides audiences, who do these new laws mentioned above affect the most? The film industry, with its back, already broken (from COVID-19), further still to the wall. Even the OTT industry employs from the same talent pool of freelance artistes, entertainers and entrepreneurs as films. They're the same.

And yet there was no cacophony suggesting caution/protest from those who make a living from expression, when the potentially draconian IT rules were imposed. You can write to the government directly, before July 2 (dhanpreet.kaur@ips.gov.in), expressing your views on its latest proposal to summarily override its own Censor Board - rendering it totally redundant!

Wonder which citizen would write in demanding/accepting/cheering greater censorship, upon themselves! There are film bodies too. Can artistes, independent by their very persuasion, be good with participating in guilds and unions? Maybe not. But producers can. Either way, it's about an impending gag order, common to all. Unless that's anyway in place - so who's going to collectively say what?

Wonder more if any of the top celebrities, with millions of online followers - a profession-agnostic class of its own - would speak up, when it concerns films alone. And when they're film people, to start with. This isn't about an emotionally charged, contentious, partisan political debate, that activists and advocacy groups often accuse them of unfairly going silent on. That's a personal call.

IT rules, FCAT's overnight annulment, now possibly super-censors from the state, beyond censors that already exist… I find them quiet still. The same way no one publicly said a word, when night after night, the film industry, an entire profession as it were, was being vilified by mainstream TV news as a drug den, and cabal of murderers, in 2020.

Gangs of Bollywood, as it were. Some guilds and producers fired off a limp lawsuit, much after the damage was done. And guilt already established among masses prone to mindless conspiracy theories.

It's not that Bollywood itself doesn't run on robust PR. No profession probably has as many publicists to manage personal image. Many of them extremely bright. But, like their clients, they helplessly surrendered. Their core strength lay elsewhere - occasionally suppressing harmless filmy stories; or pulling off boring, puff pieces, by rationing journalistic access.

Scripting an SOP, or "pointers to note" for review of a show - please refrain from writing what it's even about - has got to be a bizarre new low. Tells you much about where we probably are, though. Or hope not!

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14

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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.