“Censorship, legal and extra-legal, is a serious inroad on freedom of expression. Censorship is highly subjective and essentially mindless. The main motivation for censorship is intolerance. Conventional wisdom and official ideology cannot be allowed to be questioned and criticised and must be suppressed. Portrayal of historical events that depict a government or certain persons or groups in an unfavourable light cannot be tolerated and should therefore be suppressed by recourse to censorship.” This is a comment picked from an article by Soli Sorabjee in the Indian Express (January 30, 2007) following the non-screening of Parzania in Gujarat. The film was rejected by multiplex owners in Gujarat for fear of a Hindu backlash.

The CBFC is not the supreme authority. Its decision is often over-ruled by the administrative head of a given state including the Centre. So, censored films are also stopped after they have obtained the certificate granting them the right to show their film in the theatres. Take the example of Mrinal Sen’s Baishey Shravan.

“In October 1960, I received a note marked ‘Immediate’ from the I & B Ministry. Baishey Sravan was partly based on the Bengal famine 1943. It had been invited to the London Film Festival. The Ministry thought it would be in the fitness of things to remove all shots showing the protagonist, an incorrigible villager, using his fingers while eating. For this would, for sure, nauseate the sophisticated audience abroad. When I refused, the ministry stopped negotiating with me. I sent the print directly to the festival. Subsequently, I informed the ministry that nobody had felt sick during the screening. There was no nausea,” Mrinal Sen laughed.

Times however, have not changed since 1960. The most bizarre example is the Union government’s holding back the........

© Mathrubhumi English