Payback time...............

I do not know how many times it has happened with you, but I can recall various occasions when I and others I know, have returned from a movie totally disappointed. No, not because it was a bad movie but because it turned out to be too heavily censored.

It is not a well kept secret that the success of “Film Festivals” at one time depended on the collection of “bold” films that would form part of the “World Cinema Panorama”. These films would be much sought after among the discerning audience not for the fancy camera work, or play of light and shadow or distinctive editing techniques, but because of the various bold scenes. French cinema and various East European cinemas would fit the bill (not that they were otherwise deviod of rich cinematic content, but then, who's watching that!).

These scenes would be well publicised by the festival organisers through the media by organising discussion forums and seminars featuring the local cognoscenti and the intelligentsia.

However, occasionally some of these films would go through limited editing. The so called film crazy public will wait in long queues to buy "tax free" tickets to these shows. After the first few shows, not surprisingly, word will go around that the movie is a dud (read censored). Ticket queues would disappear overnight and you’ll hear the “intellectuals” rue the death of artistic freedom.

Well here’s the story of a guy who gave it right back (see full report). He sued the censor board for censoring the steamy scenes….now…Why did I not think of that!!!

"A Chinese moviegoer is suing China's film watchdog in frustration with the censored version of Ang Lee's steamy World War Two drama Lust, Caution , Beijing media reported Wednesday.
The Golden Lion award-winning film opened in China last month minus much of the on-screen sex and other scenes that Taiwan-born director Lee cut himself at the behest of local censors"

Big changes coming ...contd...

How many times in your life do you get the chance to say “I told you so”. If the answer is “very often” get out of here you bore. If you say ‘never’ well, get out of here anyway, you must be either too dumb or too polite.

Sometime back I had written about big changes coming (see previous post) and how our tastes, preferences and priorities are changing. Well, now that Om Shanti Om (aka OSO ...the uncannily similar sounding title acquired by a certain Rajnish who also was closely associated with nudity and ofcourse sex...and ok...if you insist..divinity) and Sawariya have released, I can, for once, proudly say…I told you so.

Nudity and filmdom have gone hand in hand since…well since we had films I guess. Bollywood, or rather the part of Indian film industry that is based out of Mumbai (how long winded is that!) has had several watershed moments as far as nudity goes. Dimple Kapadia in Sagar, Kimi Katkar in Tarzan and predating all these, Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram spring to mind readily. These are examples drawn from the mainstream cinema. In the world of parallel films (it ran in parallel theatres like Society and Pradip, not really parallel thought) we had bright examples of the Gupta Gyan variety (which in fact came tax free).

These “bold scenes” would be much talked about and the hype and would ensure the first weekend ran full house no matter what the rest of the film was about. There would be experts talking about “Oposhonskriti” (Bengali for something along the lines of decadent culture) and the downward spiralling journey of Indian tradition and values. Some quarters will welcome such boldness to the extent of epithets like “liberal cinema” and “bold films”.

What was common to all these displays of skin in various streams of cinema and the attention it attracted? It were always the ladies who were the topic of conversation (ofcourse the men folk would be similarly attired, or not attired ...depends on your point of view), but that would rarely be discussed.

Alas how things have changed. The maximum airtime to nudity being given right now in our media (electronic, phototronic, print, blogs etc etc) is to a 40+ year old man’s abdominal muscle aka “six pack” and the butt show by a chocolate kid in his early twenties (or so I guess).

There was a time when a heroin in a white dress (see the snaps as examples) will be the talk of the town, now it is the hero in white towel. Who could have thought of that. Well I did.....I told you big changes were coming and here it is.

Strangely enough in both the films Sawariya and Om Shanti Om, people are talking of the female protagonists with measured words like..new find, talented etc…while they are going gaga over the heroes of the film. We have seen people adore, admire and worship heroes like Amitabh, Uttam Kumar and Rajni (not necessarily in that order) before, but the media's gushing and frothing all-over in describing this display of male skin is really pretty disturbing.

The way SRK’s six pack is being marketed and Ranbir’s butt is being publicised (apparently the US prints did not have any qualms with the issue and showed the unedited version), I really wonder…..are most guys now turning gay. Maybe they just don’t know it, maybe it is an evolutionary process. If you consider the case of sharks, they have been around much longer than us, and some of them have evolved into being hermaphrodites. Is something similar going on here?

Personally I’ll reserve my comment on Ranbir, but SRK’s abs do make quite a sight…hey hang on….its happening to me…is it?