Film Censorship: A Staple on Freedom
The practice of censorship is probably as old as communication itself. Through the years, censorship has followed all kinds of developments in communication, casting a cloud over human expression.
Although the reasons for censorship may seem valid, it is noteworthy that censorship started out as a way for fervently religious governments to prevent thinkers from spreading new ideas among the people.
A famous example of this is Socrates’s death. Socrates was forced to drink poison as a penalty for his radical thinking which could “corrupt the youth”. Thankfully, censorship isn’t as harsh anymore, but the ethics surrounding it are still up for debate.
Before the advent of film, censorship was limited to the written and spoken word. In most cases, censorship was seen to be carried out as a “service” to the people to protect them from potentially harmful content. In the present scenario, wide-sweeping censorship still exists in countries run by insecure governments that worry about the abundance of information on the internet.
When it comes to movies, all the 195 countries in the world have some kind of censorship system in place. The rigidity of censorship depends on how liberal the country’s cultural outlook is, but in general, movies are given a rating which specifies the age of viewers who are allowed to watch them. These age restrictions are expected to be enforced by the ushers in theatres.
In India, film censorship has been the subject of heated debate in the past few years. The Central Board of Film Certification has had to explain its stance towards several critically acclaimed movies which invariably focus on social taboos. In most cases, the CBFC orders an unreasonable number of cuts which usually mangle the storyline, forcing the makers of the film to go to court or in the case of foreign films, not release the movie in India at all.
In the past decade, masterpieces like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine have failed to get certified. In fact, Blue Jasmine didn’t get the green flag due to Allen’s refusal to insert anti-smoking disclaimers!
The popular The da Vinci Code was banned in selected states too, because of its “anti-religious” content. Indian movies like Udta Punjab and Lipstick Under My Burkha have run into trouble too, mainly because the censors felt their content was too radical.
The irony is that all these films got rave reviews from critics, who notably watch the uncensored versions. Many of these acclaimed movies have had successful runs at film festivals too.
All of this begs the question: how much is too much? At what point do the censors responsible for weeding out inflammatory content become overprotective parent-figures?
The CBFC, after all, has the simple option of giving a film an A-certificate, meaning it is appropriate only for adults. In almost all cases, the CBFC orders cuts only to give a film an A-certificate. This effectively means that they’re policing what mature and intelligent adults are allowed to watch.
According to the Supreme Court, film censorship is necessary because watching a film in the “semi-darkness of a theatre” has a strong impact on the mind. Surely the average adult would know that movies and reality have only a sliver of common ground, if at all?
Admittedly, the CBFC wields a lot of power over what the public gets to see, but only in theatres. As the capabilities of the internet grow day by day, the speed of media-sharing does too. Nowadays, people download movies from various questionable websites, just days, or sometimes even hours after their theatrical release. They are unfailingly accessible in all their uncensored glory, rendering the work of the CBFC redundant. And yet, even after all this consumption of uncensored content, there is no discernible degradation of character - the degradation censors try so hard to prevent.
Times are changing. India is steadily becoming more open to unorthodox ideas and possibilities. Of course, in a country as populous as India, it is never possible to please everyone. But good art shapes culture, not the other way around. The fact that movies are easily available on the internet doesn’t mean that the problem is solved either. Movies were always meant to be watched in the semi-darkness of a theatre. Hopefully, film censor boards become a bit more considerate in the future.
Film is, after all, one of the finest forms of art, and free expression through it is the need of the hour.
This article was written in collaboration with Kumaraguruparan R, Antony Terence and Abhishek Ramachandran.
