WHEN YOUR LAUGHTER DOESN'T COME FROM YOUR HEART

Pic.: Pradeep Nanda

The latest Bollywood movie, ‘Baby’, is a brilliantly-made action-thriller. It keeps the viewer gripped till the end. The torture and violence depicted look very realistic… The movie is fast and furious, the dialogues are crisp and the editing is razor-sharp.  

But, what intrigued me about ‘Baby’ was the muting of those ‘spicy’ words from the dialogues. Still, it all was happening so fast, that one did not even feel it. Yes, even if they had kept those crude words, I would have still respected and rated the movie very high!

Films such as ‘Baby’ do need a grossly-blunt-and-crude language… It only makes the movie-experience very, very rich. So, I am not against the realism or the crude words perse'… I hope, if used in right context, the audience will, surely, respect them and find it tasteful...

Later, when I was talking about muting of crude words in the film, a friend of mine reacted swiftly, “Such muting makes no sense when ‘this’ still thrives.” He played the ‘AIB-Roaster knock-out’ video to me. I had, already, viewed a part of it when it was doing rounds on FB. So, I told my friend to stop it…

What is ‘cool’ for some can be outright ‘crass’ for many. That’s exactly what has happened to this AIB whatever. When we are young, many things are really ‘cool stuff’ for us. I have done enough of that as a young man… and learnt, along my growth, what is not acceptable, what is socially not tasteful or respectful… Initially, like all young-men of my age, I remember arguing against any advice or regulation… But, eventually, I did learn to keep my crude and crass stuff within the confines of my own private world.

So, I found the AIB stuff cheap. Well, I don’t blame them… For, as they always say, “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” So, I know, it is my problem… not theirs.

And, I hope, like me, all our young-boys and young-girls, too, will realize, along their growth, what is acceptable and tasteful and what is not. They will have to choose their own values: Whether they can sit and watch it along with their mothers and fathers… Whether there is any bravado that merits such crazy applause… Whether, at the end of the day, the heart tells you if the laughter that you showed in public came from your heart or somewhere else… Yes, whether ‘cool’ is really ‘cool’ or not!

Just an hour ago, I was waiting for an auto near a busy street. There was a chaiwala next to me. Three men were involved with some interesting discussion as they enjoyed their tea. The oldest of them wore colorful attire, dark glasses, a long black-and-white beard and seemed to be in his fifties. I was there for about ten minutes… and man, I tell you… this fellow was truly brilliant… Every second word was a colorful swear-word, every phrase was so spicy… He was so fluent in it, so brilliant, that neither the two men who were listening to his stories, nor I, who lent my two ears to him, quietly, felt that he was offensive… For, that’s how spoke in his normal life: with color, with lots of lots of crude passion. Now, why I found this fellow’s ‘filthy’ lingo not filthy at all was, because, no one was applauding him for it… He simply spoke like that… both, in private and public… Period.

But, then, our AIB gentle-men and gentle-ladies… whose movies who watch, who impact our lives so much – like it or not, they do, they do… Yes, when I saw them, both, on stage and in the audience, I really felt disgusted!

But, I know, that’s my problem… Not theirs.

GERALD D’CUNHA