Dasavatharam is not the only movie that has had to undergo such travails. Sivaji had its share of litigations before and after release, we don’t wish to delve into the details. Earlier this year, Jodha Akbar too had to be on the receiving end of some mindless street censorship. The funny (dark) side here is that the ‘dutiful and concerned’ citizens who react to the so-called ‘communally inciting’ liberties taken by cinema, file in courts what they call the public interest litigations (PILs). Now, the thing hard to understand here are, whose interests are they trying to protect, other than their own? As far as I know, the public of this country has burning issues like fuel and vegetable prices to worry about than what a movie shows in 2 plus hours.

Let’s look at the case of Jodha Akbar for instance. In what way did it hurt the sentiments of the Rajputs, especially after owning up that the movie was a work of fiction based on a few historic characters? The excellent work done by the crew was overlooked and the movie had to suffer absence from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh due to a handful of hypersensitive individuals; so much for a movie that got rave reviews wherever it was released. Talking about Dasavatharam. Let us forget about all the fuss that was made when someone claimed that the original story belonged to him. But even in the most forgiving of moods it is hard to comprehend the latest case against the movie. How could anyone have concluded that the movie hurts the Hindu sentiments by showing the Vaishnavite-Shaivite issues, even without watching the movie? Dasavatharam has been over the past year, one of the best-kept secrets in the film industry and even the trailers reveal precious little. For Sivaji, the cases came after the release with someone blaming them of tarnishing the Congress party by using photos of some of their leaders. And, there are a number of other instances to cite.

The common thing with all these cases is that they vanished like thin air. They were never seen or heard of, nor were the people who filed them once the courts dismissed them. This suggests the fragile nature of the issues that are being registered, absolutely no substance but malice and trouble mongering. Also, there has been considerable use of violence by some political outfits in the name of protecting India’s culture (they should remember that India’s greatest tradition is that of tolerance and non-violence).

Looking at these litigations, cases and affidavits, one feels that the time has come for freedom of expression being coupled with accountability and responsibility. Presently it is optional for the affected party to file a defamation suite and claim damages, but this should become an automatic judiciary initiated process. Anyone who files a flimsy PIL just to cause some discomfort should not be allowed to walk away without a proper explanation. But more importantly, it is the affected people- the filmmakers who have to respond strongly and not be happy with just getting the PIL overruled. And Oscar Ravichandran has just shown the way, when someone filed an affidavit claiming Dasavatharam as hurtful to Hindu sentiments, Oscar was prompt in filing a counter affidavit. That strong response will keep other troublemakers at bay.

In the words of Oscar “These people should be arrested under the Goonda act”. There is no better way to sum up things.