Movie Blues

Letters

"P.C. Alexander should have retired gracefully. He has reinforced our belief that in politics, public servants never fade away." Onkar Chopra, Delhi

A kiss or a nude scene in a movie should not be cut if it is relevant to the story ("Is Sex Ok?", August 5). The film industry rides on the likes and dislikes of the people, so why should a censor board decide what we see? Rating the movies rather than censoring them is the democratic way-let the viewer choose what he wants to see. Moreover, it is only right that half of the board's members should be young. Youthful intelligence is appreciated in various fields around the world. Can't they judge and rate the movies too?

Sreenivasa Kumar Hari, on e-mail

I have been a member of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for more than a year. Members are chosen from a broad spectrum of society and include lawyers, businesspeople, chartered accountants and other professionals as well as film personalities. They represent the mass audience and its opinion and taste.

Sunil Agrawal, Mumbai

The issues on censorship raised by Vijay Anand are not confined to sex on screen. Filmmakers like Anand Patwardhan had to suffer for making films on nuclear weapons and communalism. The approach of the CBFC to sensitive issues suppresses creativity and meaningful art.

Akhilesh Kumar Sah, Uttar Pradesh

Sex is definitely okay. Those who do not know the ABC of making movies have no right to be in the CBFC. In any case, the board has not been able to stop the flourishing of C-grade movies in the south.

Bal Govind, on e-mail

Will the inclusion of nudity and sex scenes make a film better? Such an argument only covers up the desire for pornography. The filmmakers should abide by the rules laid down by the CBFC as most viewers enjoy clean family movies.

Rajiv Chopra, on e-mail

We cannot be expected to live in an era of movies like Bhakta Prahlad, Sampoorna Ramayana and Jai Santoshi Ma. Cinema, like everything else, has to change with the times. Vijay Anand's suggestion should be taken seriously. One cannot question his stature or his contribution to Bollywood through the films he directed.

Dushyant Mahant, on e-mail

In spite of stringent censorship rules, a good number of soft-porn movies are screened during morning shows in the theatres, watched even by school children. What have the moral police, who create a ruckus over the abolition of censoring, done about it? This is doublespeak.

Anil Sood, on e-mail

It is ridiculous that the authorities should consider the Indian moviegoer immature. Vijay Anand's suggestions were well suited for the audience of a new millennium. Adults should be allowed to watch the worst of pornography if they want to.

Kalyan Ghosh on e-mail

The CBFC's existing norms for certifying films are outdated. If these are not overhauled, the forbidden fruit will ever remain sweet for the filmgoer.

K. Chidanand Kumar, on e-mail

Vijay Anand's resignation draws attention to the need for scrapping the rule- book, winding up the censor code and replacing the mothballed system of certification with the US system of rating that permits them everything-kissing, nudity, sex, violence-with a statutory warning.

Sushant Sachdeva, on e-mail.

The debate on sex and violence in movies will never end. Usually the family watches a movie together. We need not ape the West and watch nude scenes and listen to expletives on the screen. However, Bollywood dance sequences sometimes border on the indecent and you are left wondering how these shots escaped the censor's cuts.

D.B.N. Murthy, on e-mail

India is facing a drought and one should be discussing the problems of the farmers rather than debating whether sex in films is okay or not.

Sabyasachi Ghosh, on e-mail

So long as we have impotent minds in the "Central Board for Film Crucifixion", just forget about creativity and sex in movies.

M. Narasimha Murthy, Bangalore

The Government is being too idealistic in believing that morality can be preserved by strict censor guidelines in an age when cheap pornographic CDs are easily available and pornographic sites are accessible on the Internet.

Madhu Agrawal, on e-mail

Mahesh Bhatt and Vijay Anand may be right about creativity and freedom of expression. But the illiterate masses may not be able to differentiate between realistic scenes and those meant to titillate. The cinema is a mass medium with a larger coverage than the Internet. The CBFC may not be doing a good job, but scrapping it may be a disastrous move.

Preeti Shukla, on e-mail