Sunday, January 27, 2013

Why, Mr. Kamal Hassan?


First of all, I never intended to write this. I know that in a few days our angst will subside and we will continue to live on with this issue comfortably tucked in the deep recesses of our memories, until one day, the same will come back and bite our collective asses in a much cruder form. So, with that in mind, and today’s impending Court decision on Vishwaroopam’s atrocious ban by the Tamil Nadu government, I decided to write it, in the form of questions for Mr. Kamal Hassan. Yes sir, you. In fact, 20 questions to be precise.
  1. Why did you remind us that we pretend to live in a democracy?
  2. Why do you have to be an artistic rebel in a country where socio-political art has been long dead?
  3. Why did you have to show us that our society's tails are curled up tightly between our ass-cracks?
  4. Why did you point out the wimps within us, who sit by as our toothless government does NOTHING, fucking nothing, as ‘cultural terrorists’ wreck havoc upon us?
  5. Why did you give yourself up over the last 50 years for cinema that doesn't let you do what you want to do?
  6. Why did you have to become the bait of our failed political system?
  7. Why did you unravel the vestigial nature of our Censor Board?
  8. Why did you make us realize us that we deserve the governments we elect, and the cinema we are ‘approved’ to make?
  9. Why did you make our artists realize that their country is no longer a haven for their angst or expression?
  10. Why did you remind us that our governments still continue to be held hostage by vote bank politics?
  11. Why are you thinking ahead of your time when, according to society, you should be towing the line, following conventions like sheep in a herd?
  12. Why are you trying to show your peers – in vain – that being an artist means having the balls to stick with their artistic conviction?
  13. Why have you made us realize that it now means nothing to be an artist in a country that once consecrated art in every form?
  14. Why have you reminded us, that tomorrow if we want to take a shit, we need to wait for approval from the thought-police of our society?
  15. Why did you have to prove to us again that this country can no longer be called secular?
  16. Why are you representing all that is seemingly progressive when the truth is so far removed from it?
  17. Why have you given us and our artists another ugly battle to fight?
  18. Why did you have to open up the hypocrisy of ‘shining, incredible’ India?
  19. Why did you reveal more than the tip of the iceberg floating right under the surface of our fucked-up excuse of a country?
  20. Why did you wake us up to the reality that anytime is a time for a revolution to happen?


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