Opinion Who got their goat?
Government goes to the movies to learn about itself
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The man hugs his goat and looks back at you gloomily. This still from the recent Hindi film Peepli Live has become a symbol of the aam aadmis bemused take on the states role in his life. So when officials of the Planning Commission were made to watch the film this week in order to be sensitised about the common mans understanding of major government programmes,things came intriguingly full circle.
The government is taking notice and appreciating political satire in a commercial film. Now that is something. Governments have traditionally not taken well to less-than-flattering depictions. So no matter what effect the screening will have on the Planning Commission,just the attempt to understand how state schemes can inspire such black comedy is a refreshing change.
In fact,a month ago there was another incident related to the film that indicated a new tolerance for criticism. Sharmila Tagore,chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification,reacted promptly to reports that two members of the board had raised objections to the films supposedly derogatory reference to former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. The film had already been cleared for screening,she noted,so there was no wind in stories that those scenes were sought to be snipped.
Peepli Live revolves around a debt-ridden farmer,Natha,who plans his suicide so his family may get Rs 1 lakh as compensation from the government. A local MLA suggests a Lal Bahadur,a borewell hand pump,as per the scheme,be given to Natha to distract him from killing himself. There are other scenes where the agricultural ministry realises the enormous potential for embarrassment in Nathas suicide plan. A ministers aide rattles off names of government programmes Indira Awaas Yojana,Jawahar Rozgar Yojana,Annapurna where they can fit Natha and his goat,to entice him to reconsider. And not finding a single scheme,they then come up with a Natha card,which Natha himself cannot use. This reference to government schemes and how easily they can be thought of or discarded will presumably give Planning Commission members something to think about.
It wasnt always so. In 2006 another film Aamir Khan was associated with,Rang De Basanti,caused a flutter in the defence ministry. Indias then official entry for the Golden Globe and Academy Awards,it focused on the aftermath of a MiG-21 crash,with the pilots friends taking up the cause. The film cleared the censor board,but on the defence ministrys recommendation,there were more names added to the dedication slide for dead MiG pilots. Touching.
The government and the movies have a love-hate relationship. While it may squirm at titles and dialogues being used in films,the government does make available funds for cultural betterment. It was recently reported that a National Film Heritage Mission is being established by the information and broadcasting ministry with a corpus of Rs 660 crore. It plans to digitise,restore and preserve prints from films belonging to the National Film Archives,Childrens Film Society of India,Films Division and the National Film Development Corporation of India,which incidentally has produced one of Indias best received dark comedies,Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron.
Apart from preserving film,the government has over the decades enabled the emergence of some of the countrys finest movie directors,at the Film and Television Institute of India. The government is definitely a part of the system that gives us wholesome cinema.
Then again,do government officials actually watch documentaries and films,especially from regional cinema,that touch on socially relevant topics? Maybe one could periodically update a viewing list. Or there could be videos streamed to government websites. But for now we hope the Planning Commission officers,who are drafting the 12th Five Year Plan,watched the man with the goat,closely.
sharon.fernandes@expressindia.com
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