SNIP SNIP SNIP.......

The recent debacle over the release of the Davinci Code in India and this time with the Christian minority up in arms is not a isolated incident. This list is formidable and the toll huge…
Satyam Shivam Sundaram
Honee-Anhonee (telefilm)
Tamas
Bandit queen
Aakroash on Gujarat riots
Beyond genocide on Bhopal
Black Friday
Deepa Mehta’s fire…and then water
Jo bole sonihaal
MF Hussain’s cartoons of hanuman
Satanic verses
Tasleema Nasreen’s-dwikhandito
And finally now Dan Brown’s Davinci Code

Interestingly the genesis has been from the active role of a pseudo conscious censor board to that of fundamentalist street censorship…a more dangerous kind of censorship that though boasts democracy but annihilates the so called artistic license of the artistic community.
Let me just give you a brief summarization of the role of the censor board: -
• Firstly its warning system classifies films into adult family and children movies.
• It interposes disclaimers so that the public knows whether a work is fiction and with caveats that its not intended to hurt sentiments of people
• The last is to actually censor the scenes

Simple isn’t it? What a lot can be done within the confines of this jurisdiction.
This new controversy, however, revolves around the portrayal of Jesus as a prophet and suggests he produced a line of descent amidst centuries of papal coverup.the catholic church is annoyed that such a blasphemous and inflammatory work of art was ever allowed to be showed in the country…but critics have attacked it for style and content. Thailand wants 15 minutes cut out with caveats at the beginning and the end that the film is fiction.
Strangely enough the book is widely circulated and real.infact it is also available through street vendors. No ban was put on the publication, but the demand for the movie to be banned surfaces. On the flip side I see the sales of the book (at least) increasing especially since the waves its been creating in the news market. Generally the government evades these issues on principle, but the vote bank does play an important role. However as we all know that the Christian community in India is a besieged peaceful community –suffering attacks and threat to their faith, property and person. So the intensity with which the government mitigates their woes is pale by comparison to the more volatile sections of society like the Hindus or even Muslims.
The center could have imposed import ban as it did in the case of satanic verses and other works. A state ban under the criminal code isn’t possible since film is not a paper publication. Here it should be noted that I am definitely not in favour of indiscriminate censorship but aim to expose the ludicrous double standards of our democratic political system. Which government lies at the center isn’t of import but successive shoddy handling of such issues are such an eyesore in today’s emancipated society.
In India a pre publication censorship is frowned upon and the good old “warning system” rules the roost. Simple disclaimers and snips form the movie are enough for the viewer to decide if the content is suitable or not without any actual heavy-duty censorship. This is appreciable in a movie hungry nation like ours.
However for the censor board to be above board in these matters its essential that they be manned by the right people not fundamentalist stooges or party activists. The Davinci imbroglio does bring to our notice that nothing but absolute censorship can satisfy the hurt sentiments of bonafide protestors. To hell with the right of the viewers and well, democracy is a thing of the past…