Sex, Morality and Censorship

We went to watch a play called Sex, Morality and Censorship and to be honest, I missed the first part of the play. But that does not stop me from declaring that this was one fascinating play. Seldom have I seen a play that was so physical, that reverberated with the energy of the actors on the stage. That spoke of a story of struggle, of belief, of fights for a cause.

Sakharam Binder was one of the most famous creations of Vijay Tendulkar. To the society of the 70s, Sakharam was a culture shock beyond anything. India was yet to come out of its closet. Its sense of morality was still dominated by a false sense of nationalism rather Indianism. People campaigned to stop its screening. The political parties unanimously spoke against it without ever seeing the play. And the team fought for the right for art to survive and be free from all influences.

Sex, Morality and Censorship documents this journey and does it exceedingly well. And I really want to watch this play again. On time, in Full :)

But the question lies elsewhere. I have always been vocal about complete freedom in expression of ideas because no age can decide for itself if an idea is the Word of God for a future generation. And therein one can find the seeds of discontent and the efforts to control freedom of thought and speech. People have often played the responsible speech card against this argument. But then responsibility is also something that is relative. Society decides what responsible behaviour is and like most things society once static for a long time, stagnates in its thought as well. And there you require policing and with policing starts control and with control begins the advent of Big Brother.

Who decides where the line is to be drawn?