“Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of ‘The Giver’: the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all”
said American novelist, Lois Lowry, and we couldn’t have agreed more.
Every time an Indian movie tries to break away from monotonous story lines and portray the actual reality, it is bound to face a tough fight from the Censor Board or Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) of India. And this time it holds Udta Punjab at gunpoint, demanding 89 cuts for it to be released, given that the movie revolves around the drug problem of Punjab and has a lot of cuss words. This judgement of the CBFC gathered a lot of hatred from the public and the film industry alike and this is when Anurag Kashyap (the film’s co-producer) took to Twitter to express his disappointment.
While we see many celebrities rising in support of Udta Punjab, there have been certain politicians, who have used this situation to suit their own political agenda. Recently, Shahid Kapoor’s brother Ishaan Khattar also expressed his disbelief regarding the same, on Facebook and it makes complete sense.
Here’s what he said:
He said:
“There are many things I’d like to say about how massively disappointing the authorities have been but for now I’d prefer to focus on how very important it is for our nation’s people to watch this film and learn what it has to offer.”
“I’m not only speaking from a personal front, being that I’m one of the many who’ve put their blood and sweat into making a picture about the drug epidemic that’s plaguing Punjab (a reality I have seen first hand), but also as an audience. I hope we can watch #udtapunjab the way it is meant to be watched.”
We totally second Ishaan and hope that this time a film’s creativity wins over these so-called ‘ethical norms’ upheld by the practitioners of censorship.