Offending the freedom of speech offenders

Like beauty, misuse also lies in the eye of the beholder. A thing that might be offensive to one might not be offensive to the others. A classic example of the above statement is the most recent Tanmay Bhatt case where he swapped his face with Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar on Snapchat. I have grown up listening to my parents chanting Sachin’s name during a match and my grandfather listening to Lata Mangeshkar songs. I love them both and so does Tanmay, as he had mentioned. But he was still brought under the spotlight for making people laugh by cussing because famous people automatically become funnier when they do something out of character.

There has been another case in 2005, where an Indian movie actress, Khushboo was charged with 22 counts of obscenity because she had stated in an interview that there was nothing wrong in women having premarital sex “provided safety measures are followed to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases”. There were huge mass protests in Tamil Nadu and temples built in her honour, were needless to say, destroyed.

So when I see news articles that say how freedom of speech is being exploited, I strongly disagree, but I don’t file an FIR because the person who has written that article is free to do so and freedom can’t be exploited. Freedom is something that can’t be exploited because it is freedom, not a clause with terms and conditions. The entire concept of ‘Freedom of Speech’ is fundamentally on the idea that you can express anything you want in public. There will obviously be people who will strongly disagree with you but no one can stop you from articulating what you feel.

If one encourages not hanging a terrorist, he gets criticized as an activist fed on foreign funds. If one debates for the hanging, the 'activists' do not hesitate in slamming him as a bloodthirsty traditionalist. So this basically concludes how people will always have something to oppose to your statement, no matter how reasonable your statement is or how their statement shows the one-digit difference in their IQ and room temperature.

Contrary to popular belief, freedom doesn’t have a moral value. Freedom itself implies choosing between the good and the bad. Just because you get offended by something doesn’t mean it should immediately be censored out. The fundamental right to freedom of speech is bound to be twisted into an unpleasant thing. I can’t name one instance where people haven’t made the most pleasant thing unpleasant.

There are many instances like extremists debating for separation of a state which has made our political and social situation more difficult, but labelling those occurrences ‘misuse’ or ‘abuse’ implies curbing the right to freedom of speech which defies the purpose of freedom of speech.

Though I do not disagree with the fact that our thought process shouldn’t be ignored while delving too deep into the right of freedom of speech. We should think twice before we express our views. Stupid things that people put on the internet will mostly not be taken to the heart but will definitely be made fun of.

Written by Durva Bhatt

A bibliophile who is fuelled entirely by caffeine, sarcasm, fandoms and random thoughts.

Udta Punjab: The BitterSweet release

For quite some time now, all that any Indian resident would have found on the front page of the newspapers and flashing as breaking news in the T.V. would be the controversy surrounding the release of Udta Punjab. The film finally hit the theatres and it was worth all the controversy. Tommy Singh, a.k.a Shahid Kapoor is an enigma and the perfect portrayal of young blood. True to its name translating to “Flying Punjab” the film takes a shot at the menace that is plaguing Punjab. According to recent surveys, among the 46,923 drug addicts in India 14,483 hails from Punjab. This is a sad plight for the land of five rivers. Once the very best, the state now finds itself on a downhill. The film sheds light on these issues and the local bodies rather sit around and criticize the film, they should wake up and be aware of the real danger.

June 13, 2016, was a milestone in the annals of the Indian Film Industry. The court granted permission for the film to be released, provided the deletion of the urination scene. What actually happened here was that the creative freedom was unnecessarily curbed and the freedom of speech and thought was not being provided. The conclusions to which the Supreme Court came to is worth mentioning:

1. Filmmakers don’t support drugs.
2. Characters show facets of menace.
3. No reason to delete Punjab from sign board.
4. Drugs availability highlighted.
5. The downfall of a rock star depicted.
6. Cops struggling with drug menace.
7. CBFC not empowered by law to censor films as the word censor is not included in the Cinematograph Act.

The very fact that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) asked for 89 cuts is blasphemous. It would have been a shame if the film was allowed to run in the theatres because the story is gripping and so are the actors. All four of them are impossible to impede. Also contrary to popular belief this isn’t your average political film which lashes out at the government or takes a satirical stand against it. This is a truly meaningful film, focussing on internal conflicts, real life problems, and the characters.

The intentions of the filmmakers were pure. Shahid had expressed his anguish regarding the trial.

We live in the age of information and technology. Our generation and youth have the right to be informed. If they are not getting informed, then there is a problem. Youth has the right to know drugs are a menace. They have a right to know what can happen if they get into it whether it is the youth of Punjab, Maharashtra or whole of India. We have to support the message delivered in the film. This film has become the face of a fight that has been going on for long. Let’s stick to what our country stands for and what everybody is trying to fight for.

Obviously, we won’t go into details about the film because that would be spoilers about a film worth watching. But rest assured it will be money well spent. Even though the first half may seem lackluster it is actually a strong and solid build up for the second half. The music is heavenly and trendy. The characters suit the actors. Alia is developing as a versatile actress and this is just another feather in her cap and a true testimonial of her acting credentials. Shahid has always been one to take up a challenge and as usual, he is a delight to watch, the bad boy character suiting him perfectly. Kareena and Sartaj too come up good. Though the number of scenes cut from the film was reduced to 1 from 89 the CBFC felt the need to add more oil to this raging flame as someone within the organization leaked the uncensored version via torrent the day before the official release.

In spite of all the hard times it went through, the film has bravely and successfully navigated the rough seas and we are delighted it did. Let’s hope that this was a new era in the India Film Industry and such stupid and pointless controversies will never surface again.  India has always been a diverse country and let us bring about that diversity into our films.

Udta Punjab! Chak de India!


Written by Joseph Thachil
Valar morghulis! Valar Dohaeris!

How right the reaction of people over Tanmay Bhatt Video Is?

Comedians and troubles have a long history together. Quite often, these funnymen get into trouble and face a lot of criticism. Things, however, got a lot worse when Tanmay Bhatt decided to humour people by appointing Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar as characters. Everyone, these days, is obsessed with Snapchat filters but these filters landed Tanmay in a lot of legal issues.

Using face swapping filter, Bhatt swapped his face with these famous and well-reputed celebrities. One is the God of cricket while the other is a phenomenon singer respected by all. As predicted, people took it in a negative way and slammed the co-producer of AIB for not understanding the difference between humour and insult.

Interestingly, the film industry did not completely support the legends, as they are famously known. Some of them came forward and supported Tanmay Bhatt, instead. Sonam Kapoor, Chetan Bhagat, and Ram Gopal Varma being a few of them. Some, on the other hand, called the whole issue a very “disrespecting” and “unacceptable” thing. They asked Tanmay Bhatt to accept his mistake and apologise.

What I find amusing in the whole situation is the reaction of people which can easily fall under the category of overreaction. Sending a person to jail for something of this sort doesn’t sound right. Do we not have more important issues than taking a comedian’s words so seriously? Bhatt’s video was definitely not funny but is it right to give so much importance to it? The same thing happened when AIB Roast took place. People went ballistic and criticised all the celebrities who attended the event. Even though everyone insulted and made fun of who was present there and they had no problem with the whole harmless interaction. Also, many reality TV shows mimics popular personalities and make people laugh. Comedy Nights Bachao is based on the very concept of calling celebrities and insulting them and, mind you, they go to the lowest possible level to get TRPS.

So, does the age factor made things complicated for Bhatt? Or was it the zero tolerance of people towards anything out of the box? Or maybe people simply want issues these days because they have nothing better to do?  People hated Aamir Khan when he pondered over his wife’s words. Her concern about her child and suggestion to move out India made everyone furious and, like always, they took to social networking sites to spread the hatred. Anupam Kher, too, supported these nameless haters.

Maybe that’s why Bhatt decided to do something controversial. He knew how he can capture everyone’s attention and, surely, he got what he wanted.

This is not the first time people mimicked Lata Mangeshkar or Sachin Tendulkar. They’ve been copied and made fun of over and over. Comedians dress up like them and make the audience laugh by copying their accents. These so-called Bollywood stars have done the same thing many times to make their movie a success.  Although, they didn’t go as low as Tanmay Bhatt but isn’t the way to create humour same?

Burning Tanmay Bhatt’s photos and calling him names doesn’t affect him at all. If anything, he’s asking everyone to include his Snapchat username while they’re talking about him. Ironically enough, a US daily called Lata Mangeshkar as “a so-called playback singer”

The main question which arises out of the whole controversy or many of this type, is simple: Are we heading towards a country whose tolerance level is wearing thin and, hence, no one should voice their opinion or mock anyone because that would only result in infuriated Indians?

Written by Priyanka Chauhan
A bibliophile and an aspiring writer who lives with a  dream to travel the world.