Udta politics

If the Indian Punjab’s drug problem is a lethal one, why should a film showcasing the open secret be made to temper reality? This isn’t the first time that India’s self-proclaimed moral custodians have made Bollywood a punching bag, as if all social vices emanate from cinema alone. It isn’t the fault of the movie industry that drugs are a major election issue in Punjab that goes to vote early next year. Bottling creative expression to avoid grappling with uncomfortable truths has been a lame but commonly employed strategy by those in power.

A week before the film is due to release, the Akali government decides to express its discomfort with the allegedly negative portrayal of Punjabis in the film, and bizarrely enough, asks for the word “Punjab” to be removed from the film’s title Udta Punjab. The title was announced more than a year back and its theme about the state’s drug culture has been in the public domain ever since. The film’s trailer, released over a month back, has several million hits on online file-sharing platforms. Whatever apparent damage had to be done to the state’s image has long happened. So is the party moronic enough to think that its last-minute demand to remove “Punjab” will actually leave India’s supposedly naive viewers guessing about which state the film-makers are referring to? Genius! If someone’s on high-level dope, it’s the government. It appears to be smoking a completely different weed from what us sane and progressive lot is on. Instead of fixing the problem, it is propagating the drowning of creative voices as the solution.

If Delhi is synonymous with rape, Indian Punjab now equals drugs. And it is official, thanks to the disproportionate publicity the controversy has given the film, automatically defeating the politicos’ pea brain objective of suppressing reality. Those who decide to watch Udta Punjab will now see it less as a film that’s meant to entertain and more as an expose on the state’s crippling drug menace. The government and the government-controlled CBFC’s attitude to the film and to the film industry has been discouraging and disturbing over the years gone by. If these dinosaurs had their way, we would end up reversing the welcome strand of realism that has animated Hindi films of late, and encourage film-makers to continue exploring the age-old fantasy world of chiffon saris and Swiss Alps, a far cry from the intoxicating fumes of Punjab. It’s time the geriatrics loosened up and enjoyed a few puffs.

Tailpieces

1) Ramazan Mubarak. This particularly testing month of fasting coincides with the Summer Equinox, on, before and after which the days are unusually long, implying more hours of fasting. With the heat in the UAE, India and Pakistan being unreasonably ferocious this year, the fasting has only become more gruelling. What isn’t helping is the Islamic State urging Muslims to strike against the West during the auspicious month. The month of self-sacrifice, self-discipline and charity could sadly turn into one of vengeance.

2) Kim Kardashian may have come under flak for posting naked selfies of herself, but Dame Helen Mirren has praised her self-confidence and called her a curvy and sexy role model. Going by Kardashian’s ginormous derriere, calling her a role model for plastic surgery and artificial enhancement might be more appropriate.

3) Why the big fuss over Amir Khan (the boxer) and his wife Faryal Makhdoom Khan spending £100,000 on their daughter’s second birthday party? It’s their money. They can spend it as they please. Especially when some of it may have come from an international high-society magazine that was given the tot’s minutest party details and pictures, on an exclusive basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2016.

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