Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Smoking ban in cinema

If yesterday's post was inspired by ramz. Today is inspired by Ganesh.

Ganesh has posted a good blog on the ills of smoking. Which was very good, but he expressed his view that "I for one appreciate this one deed. We have to start somewhere isn’t it?".And many seem to agree.



I for one dont appreciate that deed. We have to be assertive and not let some one take even a minute piece of our "Freedom of expression" cake. This is totally unacceptable.Iam sure a court judgment will be passed against this ban soon.

Taking the same case

#)Shouldn't we be banning students using drugs in movies
#)scenes of people drinking
#)rape scenes
#)scenes depicting politicians as bad guys and politicians as corrupt
#)scenes of clashes on religion and cast basis.
#)scenes of bombs and gun shots.

Well i can list 1000 of more important things that are happening in real life, which if removed would make a positive impact on people/society. End result will be that all the current directors have to go.We have wake all the black and white directors from there cemetery and ask them to direct clean movies.

In today’s context every movie has 80% bad things, to show that good will triumph at the end.Given that factor why single out smoking ??.If iam making a movie , if one of the important component in my movie is the smoking habit of my hero.I cannot do it now, my govt is stopping me from expressing my idea to another person. My govt is restricting my freedom of expression.

This is what will happen when incapable people are elected into high office. This is what will happen when u put a person without any sound knowledge about democracy in high office.This darling son of the fundamentalist ramdoss who is against smoking on screen is just carrying out his dad's wishes. What did he accomplish in his ministry other than this??. He will be remembered only for his order on this ban and nothing else and people who where talking great about laloo cause he issued orders to use mud cups rather than plastic cups will sing ode to him too.Anbumani and Laloo will be remembered for there gimmicks rather than accomplishments in there ministry.

People have been smoking and drinking from god knows when. It is not the movies that made him smoke.If there is no smoking scenes in the movie what is going to happen.He is still going to go out and smoke in the interval or during a bad song.You aren't doing anything about that.

If you don’t want your kids to watch those type of movies ask the govt to have a special certification or something for that. Like A for adults, lets have S for a movie which has smoking scenes. Prohibiting your child to view that movie is ur duty.There are n number of ways to discourage people from smoking, but not like this.

When alcohol is supposed to be the greater of evil , it is still allowed and there are so many scenes and songs about it. Then why smoking alone should be banned?.I guess maybe the union minister drinks but doesn't smoke.

Comments:
i dont think Mani Ratnam would have any problems even if most of things are banned from cinema world. most of his movies are quite clear.
Shankar might have loads of problems!!
 
ithink ANBUMANI RAMDOSS felt unemployed and wanted to make his presence felt, the best way and quickest way to publicity is to attack cinema (just like his father), which is what hehas done with this ban.
 
sathish,
It has got nothing to do with maniratnam Vs shankhar it is about sathish Vs Government.

vatsan,
yep.exactly.
 
its not about only freedom of expression its also about responsibility I am not only talking about India but about all over the world they are facing this issue.
 
Ghannu bhai,

If the govt feels so responsible.It can stop selling cigarettes in loose and ask the shops to sell in packets, start rationing cigarrette packs or totally ban the selling.There are N number of ways to do it.My point is that this is just another gimmick by a rookie politician.
 
politics wise I agree with you.
Its just like on Gandhi Jayanti day closing wine ship ;)
And also shope name like Sri Balaji Wines ;)
 
In a place where the hair trend followed Rajini's hairline, anything the hero did was to be aped. The rest was ignored. The hero is straightforward, sometimes eve-teases (so it is ok) and the real cool ones smoke away to glory. He never does anything wrong. So the youngsters follow him to a T. Have you seen young men sporting a M shaped hair line since that was what the Thalai had (pun unintended)? The hero doesn't do the other bad stuff. He smokes, so it is not bad. We are talking about people who built temples for the likes of Khushboo, realized(?) NTR was Lord Krishna incarnate and eschewed Vadivukarasi because she was evil to the Hero in a movie.
Come on!
 
Sen ,

If by doing this ,the rate of smoking comes down ,i support this whole heartedly ...But this is tricky again ....

But u have not represented the effects of films on the society which is crucial for this discussion ...

Artists are creative people ..they can find some other ways of depicting the same thing ....
 
Well.. I guess there is a real distinction there..

No1 shows some1 raping a girl as an heroic affair.. That argument applies to almost evrything u specified.. But Cigarette smoking has become glorified in the name of style..Thats what we shud be stopping.

I dont have a problem with showing a problem as a problem.. the problem is when they try to justify it thru mean excuses or glorify it for maketing.
 
ioiio,

you hit the nail on the head...

Sen,
if there are bad politicians that are depicted, they are punished for being evil

if there is corrupt official, they are punished too

if there is a rapist, the hero gets his blood

if the hero smokes ? - herione, chellama, plucks it from his mouth, throws it away and instead kisses him ? :P

enna nyayam idhu ?
 
Arvind ,

Cinema Reel life ..real life illa ..
Its a depiction of a story ,not necessary a reality ..Unless u refer to the boring parallael movies which the 'Mountain of patience ' senthil sees ...( senthil ,just kidding ) ..

But the fact that cinema has an enormous effect on society cannot be blackened out ...All our emotions ,desires ,we find an outlet through some aspect of cinema ....Cinema has an enormous influence .....

But the multi million dollar question is ....

1.DO we put the blame on people that they are not mature enough to separate the reel life from real life ...I have personally felt cinema has an enormous effect from 15- 25 age group(haiaa ..nana border la thapichen) - AFter that not much does it affect .....

2.(or) do we put the blame on the movie makers that they are not responsibile enough to what to show and how to show .....Freedom of Expression needs to be used properly ...

This is again tricky question to answer again ...Let's consider these situations ...

1.Nobody can glorify Rape .Its an commonly accepted evil .Depiction of Rape as a righteous thing is not acceptable .Everybody agrees .

2.Murdering some body is acceptable if he does as a result of anger or revenge .This is the general opinion as reflected in movies .

3.When it comes to smoking or drinking ,it becomes too too subjective .Smokers themselves smoke inspite of the caution statement in the packet !

4.If rajnikanth stops smoking or announces that he stops smoking there is good probability that his rasigar manrams may follow that without any questioning .

It is definetely a worthwhile option to see actually if the rate of smoking has gone down after this law is passed ..else just scrap this law !!!
 
ghannu bhai,
That's what exactly it is, a political move.

munnima,
What makes you think that people are taking to smoking because there favourite star is smoking??.This is just a notion spread by the conservative south indian parents.I think a person is affected more by his parents and friends smoking than the stars.

Ok even if it so.The type of crazy apeing u r talking about is done only by the immature fans of the 2 south states.There is no rajini or chiranjeevi in the rest of the country.Why an all over india ban??

Even if it done mainly in all commercial movies.Why should it be banned in the non-commerical art cinema circuit, where the audience are matured.

what made the govt to take such a big decision.Was there a scientific study conducted which came out with a result that out of 100% smokers say 30% started smoking because of movies.No, this is just an idea of a old south indian villager, who got this idea buy watching a certain film star in his state.But just because his son is the union minister he is able to bring a blanket ban across the country.

Is it ok for a cabinet minister hailing from maharashtra to ban women wearing mini skirts??.

Ramki,
"If by doing this ,the rate of smoking comes down ,i support this whole heartedly"

As i told to ganesh earlier,dont you think the rate will go down completely if u ban selling cigarettes itself.

munimma,sathya,arvind

cinema is an entertainment media.They glorify what ever they want depending on the context.You dont object to a "Nayagan" an out right criminal Don being shown like Gandhi with softlightings and melodic music.Are u ready to accept "Naalu perukku nanmanna ethuvumey thapillay" kind of stmts.

Every movies asks the hero to stand up and fight aginst the problems of the society.you dont follow all those glorified stuff, then why follow this??.

BTW is it ok for a villian to smoke on the screen??.
 
You had a valid point that the government has not conducted any analysis on this which is pathetic .

koncham deviate agiren from the conclusions ..

But at the same time ,there is strong effect of cinema on society which cannot be ignored .It may not support your argument ,but thats the truth i have faced in my personal life till 24 ...Its not necessary that some body does what his favourite star does ..that happens in South India ..

In Northee ,i have observed that lot of peopel mimic or imitate sharukh to impress girls ....You can't stop anybody from impressing a girl ,but the way to impress a girl has definetely been shaped by movies ..

the effects of cinema is there at
Whether we want to bring a law like this is one discussion .

Senthil ,what about a blog of discussion on effects of movies .....ungaluku kanna pinna nu hits varum :)
 
There is no restriction on the violent action scenes and they are banning smoking only. That's bad.
 
ramki,
This is also part of the effects of cinema discussion only :).

jo,
yep
 
Guess ioiio hit the bull's eye. As long as you dont portray smoking as being cool and stylish...i am ok with showing it. Otherwise, political stunt or not...i agree with the minister.
 
eshwar,
As i said before it is the minister's own idea that people are smoking because of movies.A punjabi sardar's dont take on to smoking as a style or for that matter the hukka users of UP.It is a purely south indian notion and it cannot me imposed on everybody.

It is like a shiv sena minister imposing a rule that valentines day should not be celebrated anywhere in india.
 
LOL.. good take off on Anbumani. If he is able to take action against the root cause for the evil as the health minister, that would be good.
 
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