There are two aspects to the current controversy surrounding the film Udta Punjab: First is the ludicrousness of the Central Board for Film Certification’s objections to the film. The board has demanded that the film, which deals with the drug abuse crisis in Punjab, drop all references to Punjab as well as make 89 other cuts, so that the State is not portrayed in a bad light.
There is no rationale behind this approach – unless the filmmakers had some secret understanding with the Punjab Government’s PR and Propaganda Department that they forgot to tell us. Some establishment apologists have meekly pointed to the 2017 Assembly election in Punjab and requested greater ‘sensitivity’. Yet, the incumbent Government has officially not opposed the film – which only adds credence to the claim that this entire controversy is the result of one particularly sycophantic official at the censor board trying so hard to please his political masters that he just ends of embarrassing everybody.
As another member of the censor board has pointed out, scores of films have been made in India on controversial social and economic issues, from communal riots to organised crime to insurgencies to war, and none have been trashed in this manner because they make someone somewhere look bad. That this now has to be said in so many terms is itself a scathing comment.
The second issue here is that of the censor board itself. That such an institution, which essentially decides what is suitable for individual consumption and what is not, still exists in 2016 is an affront to the citizens of a democratic nation. The censor board is a relic of the Soviet era and should have been dismantled a long time ago. In its place, a genuine film certification or rating agency can be set up that doesn’t ‘censor’ content but only rates it on the basis of set guidelines so that viewers can make informed decisions about what they want to watch. Notably, in April, the Shyam Benegal committee had, in its report on the Cinematograph Act/ Rules, made exactly these recommendations to the Government. Clearly, it is time for the Government implement them.