"Coming back to the controversies created by the HYPOCRITIC media and a portion of public who argue that the many scenes in BOYS are obscene and vulgar in nature. Go back a couple of years in the cinema history. The same Chennai had a special screening of Deep Mehta�’s Fire exclusively for women in Anand theatre. What a movie to have special screening for women. Surprisingly the show was housefull. A movie that depicts an illegitimate relationship (this type of relationship is still illegitimate in India) between two women, in the same conservative Indian society, is running full houses. But a movie that depicts the lives of five boys as they are is protested to be cut left, right and center to accommodate public interest. Appreciate the height of bias. I'll have the last laugh. Despite the shortcomings, just for the honesty of filmmaking, I support BOYS. Do you ?"
That's what LazyGeek a.k.a Guru wrote on his review on Boys - a movie by Shankar. Media, the pseudo-puritanical section of the society and some dumbpoliticianss tried to create some noise.
The issue my friends is not with the movie. It is with the Indian psyche. 'Modesty' 'Chastity' and other such keywords are drilled into you from when you alight in this green-well not so green- world. A few years back eve-teasing killed a girl in Chennai. Very few had asked themselves 'why'. Repression. Sexual repression.
PRAFUL BIDWAI in his coulmn on Frontline 'Of fascism and repression' says:
"A number of surveys tell us that a majority of Indians are sexually inhibited and repressed. They do not know much about sex or eroticism, and talk even less about it in public. The subject of sex is taboo, just as kissing was for long in our commercial films. Often, sex is only discussed in hushed tones and furtively in dark, shady clinics like "Hero Pharmacy" which promise happy "married life" �— read, machismo overflowing with testosterone �— to frustrated, anguished young men who have terrible insecurities about premature ejaculation and insurmountable guilt about masturbation.
There is a generalised climate of forced asceticism in many parts of India. This is related to growing gendered violence, harassment of women, bride-burning, and outright rape. Gender discrimination begins early. Different-sex teenagers do not interact and play together except on pain of parental disapproval. They are taught to be chaste, "pure", celibate.
Boys are told masturbation leads to loss of virility and mental and spiritual power too. It is a sin. Girls are drilled into disguising and suppressing their sensuality, and projecting false "modesty". The family tightly controls women's mobility and sexuality. There can be little sexual freedom when the family's objective is to turn women into baby-producing (and - rearing) factories." (Read more on Frontline's site)
I can't agree more with Praful. And it is sad that 'honest' movie making has to go through this shit. Praful makes an excellent argument about how these pseudo-values fuel the repression and give rise to terrible personalities that go about raping, arsoning and killing (Godhra remember?) at will under the excuse of Hindutva or something like that. Mind you, I said under the excuse of Hindutva. How is this relevant to BOYS? Well, movies that connect to audiences; movies that are closer to reality ALSO help shape/alter the misplaced convictions, blind-values. Okay maybe that was stretching it too far but hey that's how movies ought to be made. Honest. It's fun to watch an honest movie. Where the hero doesn't wack 100 guys with ONE KICK for god'ssake! And, honest movie making relies on story, screen-play and treatment. Not on heroes or heroines. That's good news to the producers who crib about the astronomical rates of some of our heroes. Honest movies = quality movies = hits (well, mostly) so mr.producer shut up and do it. A movie needn't preach ideals. We go to movies for entertainment not for spiritual upliftment. So, if any one's talking that shit they can shut their misplaced anal cavities up. So what do I do when I am positive that sense is something I shouldn't expect from a tamil movie? I stop thinking and tell myself 'this is the way it is. stop thinking. Just watch the crap and go home and sleep.' No man! that's not how Jurassic Parks happen. Great movies happen because a free mind is allowed to pursue an idea; what it believes in. Its fundamental right is not curbed by the conservative/Talibanistic critics. For heaven'ssake Ananda Vikatan is not the ****ing authority on movie-making. Screw them. Screw the media. The press wants publicity and will publish any shit. We killed Galelio remember? For thinking the earth is a ball. Let's not repeat our mistakes. Maybe this is good for our movies. Maybe movies like Kakka Kakka, Boys (that are honest) will help shape the future of Tamil mvoies. Let's give them a chance! Let's not kill good minds. Even if the idea's proved wrong. It's all right! We put up with so much perversion in real life. If my memory serves me right one of the tamil mags (Kumudam or Vikatan) published an article sometime back on child-molestation and how it affects the married life (life itself) of a girl. They quoted victims! Why do you think it happens? It's time to move on. it was fun. All that shit about sex being 'bad'. And not having sex being good and 'spiritual'. Let's not sell our souls. Let's think what we believe. And let's believe what we think. Let's say what we think and believe. Everything else is irrelevant. Let's grow up. Please!
Write to me: suman 'at' sumankumar 'dot' com

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