Why can't, for instance, Peepli [Live] be sent as an official entry to the Oscar? Because some people think that to show a farmer readying to commit suicide is negation of the reality.
The Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, which has been voicing the farmer's grievances now says it misrepresents the cause because farmers don't do that. They may well not take recourse to suicides to get some relief for the family in deep distress. But farmers are dying nevertheless and poverty drives them to it. No dispute about that.
Fact remains however that to make a point to a larger audience, a film-maker may take a particular dimension and evolve a story and get the message across. With Peepli [Live] the message seems to have been driven home so much so that the Planning Commission had a special screening for itself to understand what the movie was trying to convey.
Which is much more action from the authorities than all the petitions that have been sent any number of times to New Delhi and Mumbai and given even to tomorrow's heir presumptive Rahul Gandhi with little to show for it on the ground. There ought to be some satisfaction at this development.
The film seems to have advanced the cause of the group that now wants the film to be withdrawn while it ought to be thanking it for highlighting the issue of farmers' suicides so ably portrayed in the media by P Sainath in The Hindu.
It is time we let people do their job without jibes. But it is certain that in India, we in India continue to be quite intolerant. No other point of view is valid, people seem to say, than their own. Others had better shut up is what it means.
That won't do.
Best you can do with what you disagree is argue your case or ignore the other point of view, but don't demand the withdrawal of a perspective.
It would hurt us all in the long run, otherwise.
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