Even a casual watcher will understand in no time that the movie is actually about the commercialisation of education.
In what is seen as a landmark judgment by India’s apex Supreme Court, it was held that a movie could not be banned by a state government after it had been cleared for screening by the Central Board of Film Certification.
The court ruling came after Uttar Pradesh, one of the largest states in the country, stopped the theatrical release of Prakash Jha’s “Aarakshan” (Reservation). The state felt that the work would incite violence.
The movie — purportedly tackling one of the country’s extremely sensitive issues of caste based reservation of jobs in the government sector and seats in educational institutions – was also banned by two other states, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. But they subsequently lifted the restriction.
Uttar Pradesh, however, stuck to its decision, forcing Jha to take legal recourse to get his work into the state’s theatres. Uttar Pradesh is seen as a lucrative territory.
The court stated in categorical terms that the government had no power to suspend the screening of a film that had already been cleared by the Board. It is the body that has been established to watch a movie, rate it and censor what it feels can harm the peace and harmony of India.
To ask for a ban or to actually stop a film from screening after the Board has certified it will go against the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by India’s constitution. Worse, such a restriction may well be an impediment, even a threat, to “democratic dissent and artistic creativity”.
The “Aarakshan” affair comes at a time when the Central Board of Film Certification is getting liberal, even planning to drop its censorial role in favour of a rating or classification system as in the West.
The amendment is in Parliament, and when it becomes an Act, movies will be just classified according to their suitability for different age groups. No cutting or mutilating any more.
Getting education
Let us look at “Aarakshan”. Which is not really about caste-based reservation in government jobs and higher educational institutions. Even a casual watcher will understand in no time that the movie is actually about the commercialisation of education. Which is also what Jha said.
And as much as politicians will rave and rant about religion and caste, today’s India is unmistakably divided on economic lines. It is, more importantly, extremely consumerist.
This is the point that “Aarakshan” tries to make. Education is now a consumer product. Have money, and you have the best education at your fingertips, and in the film, we see a Pandit or Brahmin as desperate to get a seat in a good college as is a Dalit, once called Harijan by Mahatma Gandhi.
How do you get a seat in such a college? Through bribery, through political influence and through strong-arm tactics. “Aarakshan” clearly shows us all these.
What happens when a student with low percentage gets into a reputed college through the back door, and has to compete with brainy fellow students?
He needs special attention, and the mushrooming of private coaching centres or tuitions has helped many in India to strike gold. As one character in the movie tells another: parents are prepared to beg and borrow to educate their children. Whatever be the money involved.
Shot in 55 days in Bhopal, the city that is infamous for the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy in which thousands died and thousands of others fell ill for life, “Aarakshan” has Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepika Padukone and Prateik Babbar.
The plot centres on an idealistic college principal, played by Bachchan, who finds his life rocked by an emotional storm after a court ruling on reservation. But is money politics that almost ruins him and the institution he built, encouraging merit over caste and wealth.
No more humiliation
For Jha, who hails from the caste-ridden Indian State of Bihar, controversy is nothing new.
His earlier work, “Raajneeti” (Politics) in 2010, led to a storm as well, because the plot and the characters bore strong resemblances to some of India’s political events and bigwigs.
The movie was an unflinching look at and commentary on the country’s dark political world, often marked by bloody feuds and humungous scams.
Now, with “Aarakshan” freed from the clutches of paranoid adminstrators, one hopes that it is the last time a filmmaker faces such humiliation.
Gautaman Bhaskaran is a Chennai-India based author, columnist and film critic, and can be contacted atgautamanbhaskaran@yahoo.in. He is an FMT columnist
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