So you thought India would dance to M’s tunes? You’re right ..only M as in…er.. Mayawati not Madhuri..dumbos.
This is India maah dears. ..here Aamir Khan is not a greater star than Narendra Modi.When he says ‘Who Aamir’..the people respond with ‘No Fanaa’. And if you think Madhuri Dixit and her million watt smile, coupled with her dhak dhak latkas and jhatkas, and the strenuously exercised 26″ waistline will phase out Madam Mayawatis equally dazzling 26 worded fatwas..think again!! or impose a ban on thinking forever.. I tell you ‘bans’ are contagious. For those living in caves..U P had imposed a ban on Aaja Nachle. .
What is the cause of this sudden uproar within hours of the release of Aaja Nachle? Lyrics in the title song that hurt the sensibilities of Dalits. But wasnt the music released almost a month ago? Why was the objection not put forth then itself? After all the culprit was a line in the song not a dialogue in a scene that logicalised the ban on release.
Ahh well.. but me doth protest much. Yash Chopra, his clan of Director and lyricist have rightly apologised unconditionally and pronto offered to remove the erring lyrics. So all is well.. The ban has been lifted in U.P…thanks to complete turn around by Sharmila Tagore censor chief and the YRF clan..apologies, bowed head and subservience epitomised. Not meant to be viewed as criticism..anyone in their shoes might have done the same. Only a critique on the games politicians play.
“Main Mayawati banna chahti hoon” the next gutsy aspiration gaining ground…move over Madhuri sweetie..
But like I said.. bans are contagious. the smell of power and the aroma of a puffed ego is overpowering. To bring down film wallahs on their knees is an orgasm like no other. So Punjab has now announced a ban .
In order to maintain law and order in the state, the Punjab government on Saturday banned Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit’s comeback movie “Aaja Nachle”, a day after it was pulled off from theatres in Uttar Pradesh.
The decision to ban the film has been taken in the wake of reports that a section of a society was feeling outraged over certain lines in a song in the film, Media Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister, Harcharan Bains, said here.
But you know what .. What about my feelings? It hurts my sensibilities when Blueline buses CONTINUE to mow down people day after day and they are not banned. When politicians exploit women and get them murdered, aka Madhumani and more follow suite. When benaami land deals are made and coffers continue to grow while politicians even though in the dock get away scott free. When Moninder Singh Pander the demonic paedophile gets a clean chit despite having confessed to his crime and the investigating authorities responsible for his acquittal are not banned. When young girls are sent away from police stations who refuse to record their FIR’s and are burnt alive or done to death a few days/months alter and the officials are not openly flogged. When …I can go on..my blood boils..
But you see.. my rage or a few thousand others like me does not add up to a ‘law and order situation’..since we are peaceful protesters. We dont go around burning buses and setting cinem ahalls on fire or threaten to do so. So what are we? The voiceless, impotent, fuseless bombs who will never explode. We dont matter..we dont constitute a majority in the vote banks and we are community less.
So while UP and Punjab lament over not being able to see Madhuri sizzle and Mayawati and other politicos earn their ‘kursi’ or rather validate their ‘kursis’. I’d rather stay waway from the circus, curl up in disgust on watching the news channels detailedy air the cries of a wronged mother who mourns the death of her children in the “Uphaar’ cinema blaze while the wrong doers get away with a minimum sentence.
Aaja Nachle.. India. ..dance to the tunes of our politicians.!!
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Update 4th Dec07: How prophetic is this! Did not I proclaim bans are contagious? Well..its OSO this time caught up in the ban controversy. Read on at the absolutely atrocious absurdity
A disability rights activist and organization working for the physically challenged have objected to a scene in SRK’s latest film, Om Shanti Om and they are demanding a deletion of that particular scene. The scene in question shows SRK as an actor in the film playing a physically challenged man saying: “Haath pav nahi jisko, kaise karega woh disco?” This is followed by the hit number ‘Dard-E-Disco’
( sigh) what is it about ‘dancing’ ? Is it under a jinx? First Aaja Nachle and now dard e disco..Quite a dard..er pain !
Sachiniti 
My god u r so damn right!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Neha — December 1, 2007 @ 5:13 pm |
Aaja nachle..Dancing to Mayawatis tunes
who is dancing to whose tunes..we, mayawati or madhuri..hehe..good one.
Trackback by ekjut.com — December 1, 2007 @ 5:16 pm |
Frankly i didnt find anything so offensive in the lyrics. It was something about a ‘mochi bhi banne sonar’ a cobbler also thinks of himself as goldsmith..what is wrong with that? a cobbler is a profession not a community. This way everything or everone is open for criticism.
Comment by Krishnan — December 2, 2007 @ 1:17 pm |
I have no intention of seeing the film…but this controversy over a line is annoying.
I bet there is something fishy going on.
Maybe an axe to grind with Yash Chopra.
And I agree with you…the common man has amillion better reasons to be annoyed but no voice to be heard.
Comment by dilip — December 2, 2007 @ 2:46 pm |
The ban had to come after the movie’s release. See, our politicians are not much of music buffs and they do not follow pop culture. Until, well, the entire song is out on the big screen, and while they groove to Mrs. Nene in her gorgeous Blue outfit swaying to Aaja Nachle, they are suddenly hit by the trauma of, wtf, omfg, did they just mention “Mohalle main kaisi Maramar hai, Bole mochi bhi khud ko sonar hai”. That’s friggin derogatory. Ain’t it? CBFC chief Mrs.Tagore quotes its just a proffesion mentioned in a totaly nu-derogatory way. But wtf, they don’t know the volatile sentiments of our leaders eh! Probably, when the sequel to Aaja Nachle would be released, and when Mrs.Clinton would be President (of the US), I’d object to the lyrics -Bole Enggr bhi khud ko Manager hai..hope they ban it then too, as that’s derogatory too to the Soft Engg community, India’s biggest export. Whachya say?
I need a drink.
Actually I’m still intoxicated by Mrs.Nene’s moves and grooves.
Here’s my review of the movie.LOL.
http://itsmagnumopus.blogspot.com/2007/12/aaja-nachle.html
Thanks Kaveetaa for this wonderful post.Made my Sunday.
Cheers!
Sujoy
Comment by Sujoy — December 2, 2007 @ 3:07 pm |
You are so right about everything in this post!
The “It hurts my sentiments and sensibilities when” list can go on and on .. .but hey! who cares? People like you and me don’t matter as we dont make up a sizeable portion of the vote bank. And, we choose to deploy more civilized methods of protesting (blogging being one of those methods).
Such incidents only add to my frustration. Is there anything we can do to bring into focus issues which really matter?
Comment by Kiran — December 2, 2007 @ 3:15 pm |
again…again – ill say 🙂 ill fight out.. ill question n debate on the post that flagged off just-another-year albeit 2007 seemed like bearing the ‘cross of changes’ 🙂 India Shining…. (wud u dwell of this n write a flash-bac post..??)
i neednt say that i agree with every word scribbled in this post but all the more i cant just laugh enuf at the ridiculous maturity levels of our so called minority populace! u would say political catalyst fuelling the reaction but even then – have we lost the lil brain that god gave us?? as in SC/ST/OBC fine! but over a song…. ? is that the level of self-respect that these people have? and do they want to make a living outta ‘self-pity’?? do they want a crimson red seat set aside in every god-damned place to rest their sorry ‘u-know-what’! oh come on man! there were people who din even know what they were protesting for. they hadnt seen the movie, din know the issue but were just playing ‘I-robo’ to some political trigger. can u help such a nation? can u help a group who have mortgaged their CPU and are running on a virus affected WAN – wide area network (of a sad, sorry, sordid political trash-can)
and ya! their blood doesnt boil! they are cold-blooded! even these mockery of human-respect is done with a calm n quite demeanor… why wud they even bother if the uphaar case is still gathering dates n notices at some judicial junk-yard!
blue-line buses, child abuse, political carnage, so-called-industrial revolution, rape/murder – all seem like an infinite loop which stops at nothing! aint we all tired? aint the media panting now? sms polls, open debates, walk-the talk, big fite – blah blah!! it still is a bunch of people who don know what they are doing- why they are doing so?? and we cannot change them!
its sad… and i don know why the movie-makers apologized – maybe to sell their ware, but still,,, i am plain ashamed at this way of life, at this lack of depth… at this insane human reasoning….
mukesh ambani gifts a jet-liner to his wife… even though for a day he was the richest man of this planet; he has quite a decent brother whoz also minting money… we have zillions of software engg who define standards @ global/corporate joints the world over… n we have the entire strata of people who still think that they don have a mind of their own! where do we stand? at the end of the day… life wud move onto 2008… some wud make more monies, some wud just be erased from the flowchart of human life… but wud things change in india? wud there be direction/logic/maturity/passion/understanding/vision in the ways of our lives??
all that is left of us is the religious/political and social/caste labels… aint we all proud of that? we are no longer individuals worth something… with a hollow, moth eaten fabric of self-respect we try to vent our frustrations on someone else… some issue… some way! wish i cud really put in words how i feel.. its so damn sad!!
Comment by saptarshi — December 3, 2007 @ 12:06 pm |
Yeah..painfully so Neha.
Krishnan..Its a joke really. By no stretch of imagination can one find anything offensive in the lyrics except if one wants to rake up a storm in a tea cup on Madame M’s teapoy!! This has sadly set the tone for troublemakers to misuse this precedent and go ‘bal ki khaal khicho-ing ‘lyrics to death henceforth.
Dilip it definitely is a clear case of ‘more than meets the eye’.
Hi Sujoy..LoL..yeah sure.. engineer jo ban gaya manager. Come to think of it..all the Raju’s of the world ought to have stood up in protest over the title “Raju ban gaya gentleman” which innately implies Rajus previous to this one weren’t :)Coming to your blog soon for the review. I understand Deepika is history now eh?
Hi Kiran..its frustrating as hell. I agree.
As for bringing into focus issues that matter, according to me an ideal partnership between median and bloggers can to an extent be instrumental in creating waves. Consider this: Blog like Sachiniti in the best case scenario cannot expect more than a coupla thousand unique hits a day. The media especially electronic scores over us in this sphere. But we have a longer shelf life. A google search will forever bring you to this page. So ideally our brains and medias reach is a perfect combo. Clout is a matter of concern. the right people and getting them to respond/take responsibility/be answerable and much can change.. believe me. In fact I had spoken in exactly these terms in an interview to NDTV a while ago.
Lets wait for the day..woh subah kabhi to aayegi
Comment by kaveetaakaul — December 3, 2007 @ 1:28 pm |
Hey sapt..I ne’er promised you no rose garden in a year buddy. For a flashback post..hmm..even the govt uses the excuse of a five year plan ..bas thoda intezaar…helen style 🙂
Minorities etc need a major re defining. The minorities ( if denoted purely as numbers) in actuality are the Politicians plus the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis etc who have taken over the reins. The rest of us minorities are in the majority.. get what I mean?
According to moi.. what we have in India today is an oligarchy.. a rule by a few of the few for a few..while ‘most’ are left Ram Bharose.No wonder religion is big business here.
Comment by kaveetaakaul — December 3, 2007 @ 1:48 pm |
Good one. I especially liked the Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman comment. I mean, very soon, it will be difficult to make movies, cos every comment, every dialogue, every song may have the potential to hurt someone’s sensibilities. You never know, which politician might take offense at what. And has Yash Chopra done something – becos he seems to be getting targetted here oftener than others – first Fanaa, now Aaja Nachle.
Comment by A — December 3, 2007 @ 8:49 pm |
Hi Kaveeta,
That really makes sense – clout and reach of media; combined with brains of a socially responsible blogging community – lets all look forward to that day!
Comment by Kiran — December 4, 2007 @ 5:14 am |
hmmm… you are also a minority… then i wud have to draw the tributaries n distributaries of the minority brigade 🙂 modesty is a virtue but not always 🙂 helen style intezaar karke kya faida… raat gayi baat gayi – its the age of fire n forget principle – from the war-head armed rockets to murder trials… the selective amnesia has never made us remember the issues that decorated the first quarters of the year. when there wud be a special edition of some outlook/india today n there wud be some nostalgic flash-backs.. we wud dwell and spend a wishful moment… and then again charge ahead with all the forgetful vigor of an un-bothered soul!
most don think abt this optimism, as a nation, as a country.. they are worried abt the H1 visas, the bank loans to phoren uniz.. the job offers with green back paychecks or even a degree to earn big bucks! the minority just wants to get thru into the penumbra zone where they wud smell like the majority – and its all abt the money denominators!!
the nation survives on loans, donations and scrubs of donations… 5 year plans, injustice, illogic, murder of constitution, violation of the nuances of life n its dignity… i still am with u, that it wud someday.. be a new dawn. but the realistic eye-piece pretty translucent
religion and politicx make a heady cocktaill and then thy cup overflows… amen!! gods must be crazy nah 🙂
Comment by saptarshi — December 4, 2007 @ 12:09 pm |
Thanks A…sure ..this is just not happening. Almost every form of art is now going to be held ransom by politicos over the minutest most innocent expression..democracy be damned.
Fanaa ban was a fallout of the Aamir/Modi confrontation over Narmada issue.It wasnt so much about Chopras. Aaja nachle ban is shrouded in mystery…least to do with the reason they have put forth, namely the lyrics.
Amen.. Kiran.
Sapt Babu.. float a party ” Saptarangi”..I will back you. You have the makings of a leader.Gods must be crazy ( how I simply adored that movie)..donno. Mr.GOD is known to have a pretty well manged office.. going by our Karma count 🙂
Comment by kaveetaakaul — December 4, 2007 @ 1:03 pm |
ban ban go away.. come again another day!!! 🙂
Comment by anjoo — December 19, 2007 @ 1:14 pm |