Movies – Freedom of Speech and Democracy

This is in response to 'Protests are Symptoms of a disease' column that appeared in SUNDAY Times Of India today.
Too much is being talked about these days about 'democracy' and 'freedom of speech'. When someone says that he has freedom of speech and expression, he must remember that others too have the same measure of such freedom. Freedom doesn't mean being irresponsible and speaking what comes to one's mind. It has certain restrictions and regulations. Just because we have the freedom to move around, are we able to walk into a place of our choice at any time we choose too. Say for example, can Vishal Bharadwaj or Rajkumar Hirani walk freely into 7,Race Course Road or a movie theater? They need permissions at one place and tickets at another place.
Freedom of Speech means showing restraint and speaking that which doesn't hurt anyone, as all are equal as per the Constitution. Just as Mahatma Gandhi is regarded as the Father of the Nation, God by whatever name a religion calls Him, Krishna or Allah or Jesus is regarded as the Father of the Universe. The Government of India will not tolerate any kind of denigration of Mahatma Gandhi. The National Flag, the symbol of a country, is also to be respected irrespective of whether one is a citizen of that country or not. Just as there are symbols for every nation, there are symbols and images for every religion which ought to be respected by everyone. Can we expect Gandhi (or the National Flag) to protect or defend himself, Mr.Vishal? It is the responsibility of the State to do that. It is also the responsibility of every religion to protect their religion from the onslaught of unholy elements and also to respect other's religion as much as their's.
When any person violates this basic principle in the name of freedom, creativity and expression, it is bound to create unrest in the society. Left to themselves, most people are non-violent. Film makers should tread cautiously on issues concerning religious sentiments or national issues. They can't expect the paper not to burn after throwing a lighted matchstick on it. Why at all do that? There are plenty of other issues rocking this nation other than the current subjects that they prefer to produce to make money. The film fraternity are not religious custodians for them to question the belief systems and faith of people of any religion. Their religion must be decent entertainment for all, but not mockery. Religion is an individual's matter.
If any person in the name of freedom of speech or expression insults the image or statue of Rajkumar Hirani's father or Vishal Bharadwaj's grandfather, can they stand that? They do feel offended! Right?
As long as one doesn't trample on another's freedom, there will be no protest of any sort. To say that protests are Symptoms of a disease is equal to being already diseased. Yes, of course! Violence of any nature is not to be entertained, by anyone, either on the screen or on the roads.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sai Baba of Shirdi – God or Guru or both

Image
I start this column in complete reverence to His Holiness Sri Shankaracharya of Dwaraka Peeth Swami Swaroopanand Saraswathi and with the blessings of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba. In the last few days, there is a lot of hullabaloo happening on Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi with Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswathi of Dwarka Peeth exhorting Sai devotees on June 23 not to treat Sai Baba as God and to stop worshipping him. The devotees of Sai Baba felt outraged and there was wide spread condemnation of Shankaracharya’s words. Saidham Charitable Trust filed a PIL in Supreme Court on 17 th September seeking its intervention in the matter and to direct the Centre to restrain people from making derogatory remarks on Shirdi Sai and to prevent Swamiji or his disciples from removing Sai Baba’s idols from any of the temples across the country. As an ordinary devotee of Shirdi Sai , I would like to put forth a few of the thoughts about what I feel Sai Baba is all about after having read and unde
Read more

A golden Silver Jubilee Meet of BITS85BATCH

Image
A logo par excellence They were all born in different parts of India, studied hard (some might say they hardly studied but made it to BITS) at different schools and their +2 scores got them to study and play together in the year 1985 at BITS, Pilani – the abode of higher education. While some of them got into 4-year integrated courses, some others got into 5-year dual degree courses.  The year 2014 marks the Silver Jubilee Year and the batch mates decided to have their SJM (Silver Jubilee Meet). That several Pre-SJM meets happened at different parts of the world as a precursor to the actual SJM stands testimony to the enthusiasm of the batch. The size of the batch is 564 and is spread across various continents. It is a humongous task to even communicate a message to all of them, leave alone the task of getting them together. But, thanks to technology that came to the rescue of the Organizing Committee (OC) in the form of Telegram, Whats-app, Google Groups, YouTube and Faceboo
Read more

Movie Review – Yevade Subramanyam(Telugu)

Image
This movie will definitely rank as one of the finest movies produced in Tollywood in the recent past. The theme of the movie revolves around questions like “Who Am I?” and “What Am I doing?”, that every person might have at least once in their lifetime. Subramanyam, played by Nani , works as an Investment Banker and is driven by ambition, status and money. A product of IIM-A, his vision and mission in life is to make it big in life. He is so much engrossed and hooked on to his goal that he forgets the present moment and the beauty of life. At a time when he was about to realize his dream by getting engaged to industrialist and also his boss Pasupathi ’s (played by Nazar ) daughter Ria (played by Ritu Verma ), an unexpected entry happens in the name and form of his childhood friend Rishi ( played by Vijay Devarakonda , a new find for Tollywood). Vijay played his role very well though there was a bit of overdose on two occasions owing more to directorial issues. Rishi, the charac
Read more