Chop ShoP

Deadpool, who recovered after being pulverised by Hulk (in a comic) couldn’t survive the wrath of the censor board. His famous regenerative ability was no match to the Central Board for Film Certification’s (the actual name of censor board) chopping skills. While the censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani said that they made only seven cuts, unlike China – which banned the movie, but these cuts sucked the soul of the movie.

Most of the profanity is gone. References to male and female reproductive organs have been removed. A love-making scene has been shortened (as usual). Shots of a head being blown and a hand being chopped off have been severed. The same goes for a scene at a strip club where the amount of nudity has been greatly reduced.

The censor board of late has been controversies, favourite child. Not only ‘Deadpool’, many films international and Indian productions have barely survived after passing through the gelatin – censors. James Bond - the most loved spy, who is a known womaniser, was forced to be a sansakaari. Several films couldn’t pass through the exacting standards and will never be released in the country.

Were the standards have been this exact? Consider these two films, Raj Kapoor’s ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ and Steven Speilberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’. The showman took all the liberties to present Mandakini in a sensuous way - draped in a drenched white sari under the waterfall. The movie passed with flying colours and it is being telecasted in TV, twice every month.

On the other hand, several tales surround the release of the ‘Saving Private Ryan’. The board refused to pass the academy award winning World War II epic, citing excessive violence and gore. It wasn’t until a MP, who happened to watch the movie in the US, lobbied hard and got the movie was released. However, it wasn’t free of cuts. The most realistic depiction war on silver screen – the opening battle scene was ridiculously chopped.

Lip locks and love making scenes in movies were a taboo, until Emraan Hashmi replaced the Tulip flowers, which used to stand in for the actors (Boy! Emran Hashmi is lucky), and a shy bride entering a scarcely lit bedroom and groom switching of the light was the way love was made in the films.

However, lip locks weren’t always a taboo. The very first lip lock that was shot on Indian actors was in the 1933 film Karma, Devika Rani locked her lips with Himanshu Rai for a few seconds and it wasn’t censored. The first noted film in the history of the Indian cinema that fell prey to Censor’s was 1939 Telugu film, ‘Rythu Bidda’. The movie wasn’t cut for its lip locks or lovemaking scenes but for pro-Indian content in the then British India.

The standards of the chop shop weren’t always exact. A mere glance at the activities of the board can get one flummoxed. “A director made a movie and the board chopped the meat of it. This was followed by huge hue and cry by the production house and the director. The episode did a world of good for the movie, it piqued the interest of the audience and the movie was a smash hit.

Few months later, the same director made an edgier movie and the board passed it without any cuts. The enraged director demanded cuts in the movie sat on a protest, much to the surprise of the board. When one of the members of the board asked, why he was asking for cuts, “The previous film did well at the box office, courtesy cuts and controversy surrounding it.

I was banking on the same for my second film,” replied the director. Although this tale is an inside joke on directors. It pretty much summarises how the board works,” said a former member of the board under the condition of anonymity.

“Although Cinematograph Act of 1952 and Cinematograph rules of 1983, govern the board, more or less the passing on the film depends on the whims and fancies of the members who watch it,” revealed the former member. Renowned writer Late Mullapudi Venkata Ramana in his autobiographical account, ‘Koti Komacchi’ commented that the cuts demanded by the board never made any sense.

He also said that in the late 50’s and early 60’s the board members were often bypassed by the old guard, who enjoyed bossing around the board, even after their tenure expired. After 70’s mostly people with political affiliations were appointed as the board members, he wrote.

It is safe to say that the indiscriminate ways of chopping have led to suggestive moves while filming songs and double-entendre lyrics. The board which banned any usage of words F**k, V****a, T*******s (We have to censor them in the article as well) and their derivatives with an iron fist has ignored the double entendre.

Songs in movies in the late 80s and 90s were replete with double entendre lyrics and suggestive moves. It is hardly said to which film industry started the trend and others picked it soon. In Tollywood, the trend continued in the 2000s as well. “If a line like ‘Nee gurram kosam techanele vecchanaina gaddi’ (use your wild imagination to work out the line) was allowed in a chartbuster song in the film ‘Simhadri’, I can’t understand the rationale behind chopping the line ‘Puttumachhalu lekkettesaru, kotta machalu puttincharu’ (refer to the note above) in another chartbuster song in the movie ‘Aarya 2’.

As far as I am concerned both are way uncouth to the civilised brains and aesthetics of the board members. But, this incident shows the inconsistent ways of the board, it should be noted that both songs are penned by the same lyricist,” commented N Narasimha Swamy, a music enthusiast.

While the directors, producers and audience have resigned to the ways of the board until Pahlaj Nihalani was made the chairman of the Censor Board. He kicked the hornet’s nest by enforcing “sanskaari” ways. Producing the list of expletives that are banned in films is the first step, it was followed by making James Bond a sanskaari and recently, rating trailer of Hansal Mehta’s film ‘Aligarh’ ‘A’.

After the huge hue and cry that followed, the Central government has set up a committee with veteran director Shyam Benegal as a member to make changes into the archaic laws. In a recent interview to The Hans India, he said that the committee is trying to bring in new methods of certification.

“In one word, I would say abolish censorship. I personally don't believe in censorship... I am concerned about the imposition of censorship here, which has no real purpose except to come in the way of your expression. That's the kind of censorship I oppose. We don’t want the scissors as we don’t believe is cutting the scenes. Cinema has to be seen in its entirety,” he commented.

The committee met for the first time on February 12 and the minutes of the meeting aren’t out. While the filmmakers hopeful that the doyen of parallel cinema will find an answer to the censor woes, a recent survey on ‘Gender In Media’ by GDIGM and FICCI FLO has put a serious dent in the hopes. One of the major findings of the story was ‘Indians prefer family-focussed, clean media content’.

Commenting on the survey, a member of the regional board of censors said that we get bashed for imposing morals but all we are doing is providing clean content and the survey proves that we are right.However, filmmakers Prakash Jha who is on a promotional spree for his upcoming film ‘Jai Gangajal’ had strong words for the board. “We do not need the censor board. It should be shut down.

I am not talking about any ideology but five people should not be given the power to see that what society should watch or not watch. Everything is available these days and one can’t stop anyone from watching anything. Censor board is not needed. If a pornographic film is screened in a theatre the people who want to watch they will see it. Families will not watch it, girls will not go. The people who want to go will anyway go, so let them go,” he asserted.

While Jha’s comments are relevant in the current scenario, it all depends on the committee’s recommendations. It is reliably learnt that the committee is looking at British system of certification, wherein a film is rated based on admissibility according to age without any cuts. But will Central government adopt these recommendations, only time will tell. Until then use our friends on the torrents to watch the censored content.