Kolkata: A lot of ‘lines were crossed’ in terms of films by women according to the Central Board of Film Certification most commonly known as the censor board over the years. The Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2018 witnessed the veterans of the act of crossing the line recently on the St. Paul’s Cathedral grounds.
It was a star studded evening at the Oxford Pavillion in the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2018 where a panel discussion was hosted on the topic of “Crossing the Line- Women on the big screen who question, challenge and break the rules.” The panelists for the evening were all legendary personalities from the film industry who need no introduction at all; Filmmaker, Composer and Playback Singer Vishal Bhardwaj, Actor Ratna Pathak Shah, Filmmaker-actor Aparna Sen, Filmmaker-author Mira Nair and Actor-social worker Nandana Sen. The moderator for the evening was Modhurima Sinha.
The panel discussion pointed out several topics and perhaps the most important problems that we need to look into right now. The panelists discussed about their work which in turn raised a lot of unwanted questions and controversy. The idea was simple, the mindset of the people living in the patriarchal society needs to change.
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It is indeed true that women are not yet considered equal to the men and films about the harsh realities about women give birth to controversies which should never be the case. Thanks to the censor board, such films are often banned or a huge number of scenes are left out as it may cause threat to the “Indian culture.” The panelists discussed upon this topic as to how it is unjust fir the body to do so and films should acutally be allowed to portray the reality which is often not the case.
The audience seemed to enjoy the evening much as hands went up when came the turn for Q&A. To sum it up, it was overwhelming how the people of Kolkata embraced the idea of “Crossing the Line” in the big screens.
Picture & Text by Subhraroop Saha
