Dear Pahlaj Nihalani, ‘Jolly LL.B 2’ is not a documentary, but neither is ‘Padmavati’

Recently, Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘Jolly LL.B 2’ faced some opposition from Mumbai High Court, wherein they demanded a few scenes to be altered or cut as it was demeaning to the community of lawyers as a whole. How a shoe-flinging scene or a scene wherein a scared judge is hiding behind his chair, much like a normal human being, is insulting to the profession, that’s a mystery known only to the ones who are offended by the movie. An advocate even went to the extent of saying that LLB should be dropped from the name of the movie. We are just heaving a sigh of relief that the offensive brigade was not so active when the sleeper hit and a superb movie, ‘Jolly LLB’, the first one of the franchise which starred Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani, was released, back in 2012.

Anyway, there’s a surprise too, in the form of a reaction from a man who we thought was long indifferent to the freedom of creativity. Ironically, that man is also the chief of CBFC. Well, we say this with due respect to the profession of certification, for we are mere creators of words expressing our opinion. Akshay Kumar said that the makers do not have a problem as they respect the decision of the authorities, and that’s when CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani expressed his anger on the same. Nihalani said that the movie is not a documentary and people should take it as it is. He further said that the legal intervention implies that the Censor Board is not doing its job properly which is not the case.

That got us wondering, actually more than that, because here was a man who bans everything that remotely spells ‘controversy’. But that got us thinking on other levels too.

It was not many days back that the whole ‘Padmavati’ row had flared up, wherein some self-proclaimed protectors of culture had beaten up senior director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and broke the sets of his upcoming movie ‘Padmavati’.

Well, we did wonder why didn’t Nihalani speak up at that time. Was it fear of the unknown that his image of being a religious bias will come under the scanner, or just pure indifference towards any matter which sparks a debate on ‘cultural’ and ‘religious’ grounds, we might never know. While the whole industry stood their ground (with the exception of Abhijeet Bhattacharya, but then, he remains an exception), and supported Bhansali, the CBFC chief did not utter a word of condemn, lest he himself roused the sleeping demons who might target him next. Fear or ideology, only he knows.

Same goes for the ‘Udta Punjab’ row, where Nihalani had grounded the movie and told the makers to drop the name of Punjab from the title and reduce the cuss words. Finally, the movie which was made with honest intentions got released with some 90 odd cuts.

We do appreciate the CBFC chief finally speaking up in favour of creativity, but we also think that it should not be hypocritical, and the statements should come for every injustice in the industry, no matter what the issue.

Kadambari Srivastava

Grammar Nazi, word weaver, dreamer, bibliophile, technophile, caffeine addict, foodie, shuttling shopaholic! Mash it in a Bollywood recipe and voila! Pushpa, you’ve got her!