Lipstick under my Burkha!!

Lipstick under my Burkha!!

A movie with a rather conspicuous name. A movie that talks about four different women from different parts of the society with only one aim. Aim to break the shackles of this male chauvinist society and to fulfill their desires.

What kind of desires you may ask… it’s the one you, I and every girl has in her life. To step out from the home and be adventurous, to be free to express and wear what she wants to, to be able to have fun without being labelled and most of all to do what her heart tells her to do.

BUT is making such kind of movie in India easy?? Maybe yes.. Maybe not so easy but not so difficult too...

BUT is getting such a movie certified from CBFC easy?? Definitely Not!! How can a board certify a movie with females as the only protagonists? 

What the board says:

• “Lady oriented” – Ahh!! The biggest mistake. Alankrita Shrivastava (Director) should have known better as she is an Indian. We the people of India live in a patriarchal society. Anything female oriented is uprightly not acceptable. 
• “Fantasy above Life” – Fantasy of yesterday’s movie has inspired Mark Zuckerberg to build a Jarvis like software for himself. The theoretical meaning of Fantasy is imagining something which is impossible. So how can a board tell me what I can or cannot fantasize about?
• “Abusive words” – What is the Adult certificate for? How can a movie with double meaning words and actions be okay for the audiences to see but a movie with some abusive words not??

Some of you may argue that it’s just a movie. I agree with you. But isn’t denying certification to a movie with a female point of view silencing the voice of women’s. Isn’t it wrong for the board to be gender biased instead of being gender sensitive?

Lipstick under my Burkha is a movie gathering accolades all over the globe… Except India!! 

Ironically in a progressive India where we tell our girls there is no limit to the dreams and fantasies… We are also telling them that’s its only okay for the male strata of the society to fantasize and have desires. 

I fail to comprehend how we, the educated lot are okay with a regressive board deciding on what is moral for us to watch. How are we not reading deeper into what needs to be read. How we are okay with a board robbing the rights of women to express. And most of all… How we are okay with accepting the status quo when it loudly says we need a change!!

Source for Censor board comments: http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/lipstick-under-my-burkha-alankrita-shrivastava-cbfc-censorship-awards-prakash-jha-4555663/