Call it a sign of no-confidence in Pahlaj Nihalani, Chairman, Central Board of Film Certification, or an attempt to suggest corrective measures, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry constituted a committee, headed by the film-maker Shyam Benegal to suggest measures to help Board members understand the nuances of film certification. A press note from the Ministry said the recommendations of the committee were expected to provide a holistic framework for those certifying films.
Freedom of speech is already robbed and even a censorship was sought for the comedy obscenity and use of the word “Bombay” in a song for hurting sentiments. Kamal Hassan’s Vishwaroopam had really taken a different turn as the screening of the film was banned in Tamil Nadu. The film had hit the Box Office with a strong story, meaningful message and powerful cine arts and techniques as these technical skills were not imparted even exceeded Bolywood flicks. The writing is on the wall. Film world feel isolated with the strictures of the censor board and the Central Government has no say on its functioning.
The previous UPA government had set up a panel headed by Mukul Mudgal, former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, to recommend good certification processes and measures to revamp the CBFC and the nine regional Boards. Before Mr. Mudgal, the CBFC under Leela Samson had made strong recommendations to revamp and restructure the certification process.
Leela Samson quit after a furore. With the change in Censor Board after that we expect drastic changes including stopping the release of the alleged controversial films at the eleventh hour and putting the producer and distributor under great stress. And vulgarity in the films is censored whereas violence continues to top the films in the silver screen. An unilateral yardstick should be applied to protect the films from getting ban for wrong reasons when there is no such offence observed in the film. That is my clarion call.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
