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DARING TO BARE: Pornstar Shakeela
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The recommendation
that was Vijay Anand's undoing originated with the CBFC's regional office
at Thiruvananthapuram. And, according to A. Dhanasekharan, CBFC additional
regional officer, it was born of sheer realism. "We didn't recommend
screening of pornographic films, only those meant for adults. This is a
practice followed in most western countries. We also recommended a new category
of certification called m/a (matured adults),'' he says.
Not surprisingly, soft porn is big business in the Malayalam film industry.
Of the 90-odd films released last year, at least one-third were those
that celebrated the statuesque charms of stars such as Shakeela and Maria.
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HOT STUFF: Pornography is big business in the Malayalam
and Tamil film industries
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Despite adhering to the CBFC guidelines, Dhanasekharan says by the time
films get to theatres, they miraculously acquire obscene sequences that
did not exist at the time of the screening. The Cinematograph Act, 1952,
provides for uncensored prints to be seized though this has not happened
even once in Kerala in the past five years. Yet, last year prints of 23
Tamil films were seized from various theatres in neighbouring Tamil Nadu
for the same offence. "Because the enforcing agency is weak, we have
started employing private detectives in metros to identify theatres showing
uncensored films,'' says Dhanasekharan. The results have been better in
Tamil Nadu.
It isn't just smut that Malayalam filmmakers succumb to. Sometimes it
is also the whims of the CBFC. T.K. Rajeev Kumar, director of Sesham,
remembers how he was forced by the CBFC to delete a vital opening sequence
which showed a flash of nudity. "The most senior member in the regional
CBFC panel objected to this scene though the two women said they found
nothing objectionable,'' he says. And yet, complains Kumar, in the same
society, a Malayalam satellite network shows films starring Shakeela at
least thrice a week. "Heavens haven't fallen because of this,'' he
adds.
-M.G. Radhakrishnan
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CURRENT
ISSUE AUGUST 5, 2002
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