Kuch tum kaho, kuch hum kahein

Fellow film critic Namrata Joshi posted on social media an instruction manual along with preview link of a show called Grahan that she received last week Irsquom presuming from the PRpublicity team of DisneyHotstar On How to review the said seriesThe gist of which was ldquoKindly do not connect the show to any current or past situationsactivities around political happenings We are happy to hear your views on aspects of the show like dialogue cinematography etcrdquo Have read only one review of Grahan thus far At no point does it mention that itrsquos based on the 1984 antiSikh riots in Bokaromdashwhich is absolutely the only point of the showClearly itrsquos the screener I felt no fomo for What with a note by a producerplatform that itself has greenlit and released the series let alone what theyrsquoll make in the future What could call for thisPerhaps fear generated from a culture of FIRs and harassment from the state That only recently the head honchos of Amazon Prime Video had to go throughmdashover a lightweight moronic series like Tandav that nobody wouldrsquove cared for otherwiseShortly thereafter the government imposed a new set of IT rules with no precedence in a maturereal democracy placing Internet censorship under its direct ambit specifically OTT content social media and online newsA law so heavily loaded in favour of complaints from the offended who create nothing as against those who domdashthat surely any RameshSuresh could be pissed off by Mona Lisarsquos smile and thatrsquos good enough reason for Da Vinci to not existThe creator can keep taking rounds of government officescommittees This in the same week that Italy altogether banned film censorship With films for theatrical release the government disbanded the Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal FCATWhich usually headed by a retired judge used to be the final resort for a filmmakermdashmiffed by a decision of the governmentappointed Central Board of Film Certification CBFCCensor Board A place to go tomdashbefore running to courts right before a release and incurring hefty legal fees that inevitably follow FCAT is goneNow the government plans to reintroduce a provision in the Cinematograph Act earlier held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court that will allow it to recallreverse a decision of the Censor Board itself Basically the state can unilaterally ban what they like or donrsquotWho will take that call Another government committee or an overpowering individual In which case whyrsquos there a Censor BoardThe controlling impulse of the complicit political class is so complete that I havenrsquot heard a strong challenging viewpoint to this even from parties that are not in power TINA There is no alternative factor applies all rightBesides audiences who do these new laws mentioned above affect the most The film industry with its back already broken from COVID19 further still to the wall Even the OTT industry employs from the same talent pool of freelance artistes entertainers and entrepreneurs as films Theyrsquore the same And yet there was no cacophony suggesting cautionprotest from those who make a living from expression when the potentially draconian IT rules were imposed You can write to the government directly before July 2 dhanpreetkauripsgovin expressing your views on its latest proposal to summarily override its own Censor Boardmdashrendering it totally redundantWonder which citizen would write in demandingacceptingcheering greater censorship upon themselves There are film bodies too Can artistes independent by their very persuasion be good with participating in guilds and unions Maybe not But producers can Either way itrsquos about an impending gag order common to all Unless thatrsquos anyway in placemdashso whorsquos going to collectively say whatWonder more if any of the top celebrities with millions of online followersmdasha professionagnostic class of its ownmdashwould speak up when it concerns films alone And when theyrsquore film people to start with This isnrsquot about an emotionally charged contentious partisan political debate that activists and advocacy groups often accuse them of unfairly going silent on Thatrsquos a personal callIT rules FCATrsquos overnight annulment now possibly supercensors from the state beyond censors that already existhellip I find them quiet still The same way no one publicly said a word when night after night the film industry an entire profession as it were was being vilified by mainstream TV news as a drug den and cabal of murderers in 2020Gangs of Bollywood as it were Some guilds and producers fired off a limp lawsuit much after the damage was done And guilt already established among masses prone to mindless conspiracy theories Itrsquos not that Bollywood itself doesnrsquot run on robust PR No profession probably has as many publicists to manage personal image Many of them extremely bright But like their clients they helplessly surrendered Their core strength lay elsewheremdashoccasionally suppressing harmless filmy stories or pulling off boring puff pieces by rationing journalistic accessScripting an SOP or ldquopointers to noterdquo for review of a showmdashplease refrain from writing what itrsquos even aboutmdashhas got to be a bizarre new low Tells you much about where we probably are though Or hope notMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper