Udta Punjab #onecut And what it means for Indians
What is a democracy? There are quite-a-many definitions. For what I believe, it is a wondrous place where civilians can implement their free will, to an extent where the air itself feels content and emancipated.
I bet no one thinks like that, till the time they feel the choker on their necks.
Well, the democracies have always been for the ones that courageously fight in order to preserve the single most important entity that their short bound lives deserve. It’s not in the human nature to have an acceptance of repression, at least not for a very long time. Some just wake up later than others in the morning of course.
Democracies are also for the nations that want to inject a certain change in other nations, but ‘thankfully’ that’s not where we are headed. The injecting that we are essentially conferring about is the organic chemical that flows freely in the green lanes of Punjabi youth.
I remember my mother being a member of the women’s wing of Rotary Club. This club did many activities like helping poor, teaching and feeding underprivileged children who are bound to a hard life of a child labour. So, one year she ended up being the president of her club’s district. I recall the following perfectly as I went to receive the VHS tape from a marriage video editor (creatives find a way). She, along with her team had made a short film on drug addiction, which had been scorching up the youth. They would ultimately showcase the film at different rehabilitation centers and hopefully inspire some of the fallen.
This was early 2000’s, it was the holy city of Amritsar and yes drug problem was existent in Punjab then, like it is very much a leech now and its sucking up every ounce of energy that is left in our beloved golden land. And it is conceivably genuine that some big personalities would be profiting from the trade.
What my mother and her team made in a tiny amount then, producer Anurag Kashyap and his team have tried to do on a larger vector now, with their film, Udta Punjab.
Looking at the previous work of this batch, their aim in life does not seem to pass on the marketable litter to the audiences under the lines of profanity (most are doing that already), nor it is to malign a state that fills the bellies of millions (I am sure they know about it too), and certainly not to promote the usage of the poison itself.
There original purpose is to create awareness. And well, there is no better means to put information into thick & thin skulls than visual media and that too entertainment. Mr. Kashyap knows this, he’s always run by the principal. And so what if the makers would make some money along the way? Haven’t they given employment to 1000’s of people on a complete risk already? And if they don’t earn now, how would they attain confidence to give employment to another 1000’s for the next project? Isn’t that the whole point of economy and capitalism? Or are we suddenly on the red bandwagon now? It’s quite confusing to apprehend honestly, with the comments of some ‘significant’ people or of course the Internet trolls.
The high court order of passing the film with just one cut (which was actually degrading and bit vile, at least according to my perception), is one of a kind occurrence (and quite a snap) that has transpired in this country after a long wait of four sleepy generations. Someone has dared to speak out. Someone who is not a forceful perceived notion of authority, that we so conveniently bend backwards and oblige to, even when consciously we know that we put them there. And that revolt had created all the mess. The ‘How dare? Factor.’
But someone has to object the objectification. Yes the human mind, a fragile entity, has acquiescent tendencies, but at same time if we can decide to choose a course we are going to travel on for the rest of our lives at a tender age, we are very well capable of deciding the trees we take shade under as we move along the path, and would generally accept the fact if they gave us a weird tan. The objectifier should not tread each individual mind lightly, trying to assert their own dogmas into them.
Not today, not tomorrow, but some day. We, as a society have to decide if we are going to be an object of a weaver’s weave or shall let our binaries create their own sense of freedom, vision and ingenuity.
A nation can only be modern and developed when it becomes a true democracy, and it attains the status of a true democracy only when its citizens have a right to put out their word and their concerns without the fear of being persecuted. Yes, even true democracies are never the utopian lands of garlands and fairies, but they’re a step closer.
For us, its still a long way to go but this action certainly gives us a ray of yellow sunshine.
