The loonies with a blunt pair of scissors were at it again. This time around, the custodians of India’s culture and tradition a.k.a. Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) found a few explicit scenes in a well-meaning tale of a man grappling with his sexuality not in line with the mores and morals of our ancient nation. A few snips and a lot of silenced words later, Moonlight made it to the theatres, bereft of two scenes crucial to understanding the character developments of the leading duo.
Moonlight, a poised, poetic meditation on life, love, friendship and family, is one film the casual cinemagoer would gladly give a miss. The film is a reflection of the society that is only too eager to isolate those who are different. There are also tender moments of acceptance, affection and glimpses of possible redemption and forgiveness. Nonetheless, it promises next to nothing to those who saunter into the cinema hall expecting to kill time on a brainless flick.
Directed by Berry Jenkins and starring Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland and Naomie Harris, the film has impressed critics and has bagged awards galore. It is also seen as a serious threat to the Oscar dreams of Damien Chazelle and his folks in the wonderfully over-rated La La Land. For the members of censor board, however, Moonlight was another ‘Western’ film intended to influence the gullible Indian minds and turn them into ‘homos’. The old and wise of the board showed the movie makers of the West that they can do puny little to lead Indians astray as long as the ‘right’ of mind have a say in what is shown on screen. Their scissors worked so well that I had to resort to the Wiki page of the film to make perfect sense of a beautifully crafted film once the credits rolled.
The countless cuttings Udta Punjab had to deal with didn’t offend my cinematic sensibilities because the film made sense despite the many nips and cuts. When the board took matters into their own hands and decided how long super spy Bond should kiss Monica Belucci’s Lucia in Spectre, it could be overlooked as the lip lock only meant nothing more than to tell that Bond could even kiss Belucci.
The intimate scenes in Moonlight were woven well into the plot to make sense of the fears of the protagonist Chiron and his hopes of light at the end of a long tunnel. But sadly, for the censor board, they ended up as “visuals of a boy and girl having sex/jerk moment to Kevin turns to Chiron and says you good black” and “visuals of after second kiss from boy to boy…..till he says I am sorry”. In other, rather sensible words, the board thought these were just a few 'sex scenes'—a strict NO to the Indian eyes.
Credit: Reddit
The fault is not with the board. The members of the board cannot be blamed for failing to understand what goes on in the minds of the characters. Hell, they can’t even be held guilty for not possessing enough sensibilities to appreciate good cinema. The fault lies with the distributors of this film who assumed that the good old guys at the board who relish Sheila ki jawani and Chaar bottle vodka would be kind enough to overlook the completely non-sanskari scenes of a ‘Western’ movie. The blame should also be shared by the cineophiles stupid enough to shell out few hundred bucks to catch an R-rated movie in a theatre instead of banking on their ‘torrential’ sources.
