Are we stretching the premises of being democratic? Here are few of these example and issues that more frequently lead to such uproar. Take your sides, you are expected to, make up your mind, throw in your argument, comment and debate in a healthy manner.  But refrain from creating a situation out of these. I will take a few subject each time, # 4-5-6 are here, read on.

SMOKING AND DRINKING

Oh yes, we are not to show villain or the hero (and everybody else) smoking. When High Court said this was unconstitutional it was appealed. Fine. No smoking pub, now a reality. No more rings throwing vamps, cigar smoking villains, confidence oozing hero. Maybe there was too much smoking happening. The ban is manageable but not required. 

So while all that cleavage and thigh show, that entire foundling and wanting to get into the bed is fine- but please don’t smoke.

Why not charge a fee to the producers per second of the smoking shot and invest that for the treatment of people suffering from ailments of smoking instead of taking away his creative license. This may not be best of the solution but just ensuring that the brand being smoked is not visible will be a small but equally effective measure. There is far lesser co-relation between takings on smoking after seeing in the films than cancer due to smoking. Are we not really barking at a wrong tree?

Cigarette smoking starts from peer pressure, loneliness, lack of confidence, seeking attention, lack of social life , wishing to be macho, wanting to be treated a grown up while you are growing up. Find solutions to that. Neither over pricing of cigarettes nor restricting cigarette shops away from school & colleges the only answer. But yes they do make their contribution.

USE OF PROFESSION AND CAST TITLES.

Billu Barber, a simple name, what’s wrong; was that not the common word used for the profession depicted in the film. There I think we went overboard and Khan changed the name. Or you never know if it was not just a marketing gimmick for the silly film it was.

I read somewhere that in one of the south states, ‘Teaches’  and ‘Doctor’ brand of whisky cannot be sold as the rules does not allow for Nobel profession to be named as brand for liquor. But you can be motivated to ‘keep walking’

Someone had to stop the use of word Chamar and some one Moochi  from their songs. Blip was Ok an audio effect of choice. But Kaminey as a movie title is Ok with us. But Bar Girl association cannot raise its voice for Chandni Bar. Are they sensible or Madhur did not need a gimmick for the film. Police has never raised issue on wrong representation (or that was a reality) or Ardh Satya.

So in AVATAR we talk about white race dominance and then in Tiger Wood case a priest complains that at-least one of the 18 holes that he played outside could have been black.

USE OF OLD VS NEW NAMES OF PLACES.

Will wrongly referring to a place in a film make so much of a difference? Are we not giving too much weight-age to the medium? And also to the people who are pushing for it.

So Karan Johan had to apologise for using Bombay instead of Mumbai in ‘wake up sid’. Truth would be that Khan could not have banked on the security assurance from Govt and hence did what suited his business best.

We all are proud of Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and the financial capital of the country. But do we disrespect it if we utter the name Bombay or Mumbai , most likely not. It’s just that the name Mumbai might not have totally got entrenched in our mind-space.

And if Mumbai is really really to be forced, it will not be possible just be renaming things like ‘Mumbai Stock Exchange’  Or ‘Mollywood  films’. Or ‘Mumbai Scootish school’ or ‘Mumbai Gymkhana’. The trick is to get people to use the names on everyday basis but not by use of force. For that citizens drive for associating and feeling of ownership of the cause is required. Which is too much to expect?

We still are fighting for ‘Rajeev Chowck’ (Connaught place), ‘Chatrapati Shivaji terminus’ (VT).  Why not define which country we reside in Hindustan, India, Bharat- why is there a leeway there.

I would invite comments- views and examples that the readers can think of and would like to further develop this debate. Please do let me know- if it’s fair to use your name (hyper linking to your designate sites profiles ) your name when I update this article. Next on 27th Jan 2010