[vivekiny2k]

let me add another point here. We subscribed to Zee USA recently again. unfortunately my son loves it because this is the only channel he understands (hindi). I have a problem with all the serials. Killing children, dirty conspiracies against family, colleagues, in-laws. Looks like the worse they make it, the more audience they attract.

I was hopeful that it will keep my children close to my homeland, help them understand how things work in indian culture. If this is how it is, I better give it up.

hopefully it will be ok once he starts his school in sep and then I will have him switch to english channel. even spike or real TV will be better than this saas bahu conspiracies.

[blacmagic]

censorship is a joke. good and bad are both essential for a person to hone his decision making process. the best and only form of censorship is self censorship. everything else is bound to fall flat on its face.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Was the title changed from Censorship to Film Censorship? If so my comments dont hold.

Arre yaar its ok to deviate a little from the title here and there sometimes mods are quite tolerant about it. hehe. try it.

Vivek, please i beg you dont let your kid watch Zee!! Get Charlie Chaplin or Laurel and Hardy or Mr Bean on rent and make him watch that. At that age, its all about having fun!

Akhilesh, i don't know if i agree with you or not.

Wouldn't censorship become pointless if we, as viewers, learn to accept or reject what is right? Would there be a need for censorship if people in the media (written or otherwise) grow up enough to portray an unbiased untwisted version of truth?
Why do we want to be the first to watch a film like Kambakht Ishk without waiting for atleast initial opinions about it? *i havent seen the movie, by the way, and i want to keep it that way*

blacmagic, all that is fine, but do you think we will ever get to that stage where self censorship is enough?

[akhilesh51]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Akhilesh, i don't know if i agree with you or not.

Wouldn't censorship become pointless if we, as viewers, learn to accept or reject what is right? Would there be a need for censorship if people in the media (written or otherwise) grow up enough to portray an unbiased untwisted version of truth?
Why do we want to be the first to watch a film like Kambakht Ishk without waiting for atleast initial opinions about it? *i havent seen the movie, by the way, and i want to keep it that way*

All I wanted to say was:

1. There should be age based censorship and certification. This would mean that content is broken into various age groups or time slots.

2. Censorship should not just be limited to sex, drugs and violence. It should also monitor and restrict shows/adverts/movies with lewd dialogues, mature product promotion, fundamentalist/racist nature, promoting or effectively portraying social evils.

3. News Channels / Soap Channels should be heavily censored.

And, I completely agree that once everyone grows up to the content shown, there would be no need for censor, but till then censor board is absolutely needed.

[tsk1979]

Good point of age based. But who will decide whats appropriate for my age? Some scenes which may be okay by censors sensibilities may not okay with my religious view at all.
Some scenes which I think should be okay for my children to watch may not be okay with the censor.
This is where it all fails.
And as for censoring news channels, the moment you give this power to govt, they will try to censor all negative news about themselves.
In a free society, censorship is a cancer.
In the past powerful people have used it to censor movies which dared to speak the truth.
A classic example is amu which had entire dialogue sequences removed. Nobody was using cuss words in that, and nor was there only nudity. Its just that the truth was too bitter, and it got censored.
There are other countless examples in the cinema where somebody uses this tool to forward their own gains.

[blacmagic]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Good point of age based. But who will decide whats appropriate for my age? Some scenes which may be okay by censors sensibilities may not okay with my religious view at all.
Some scenes which I think should be okay for my children to watch may not be okay with the censor.

that hit the nail square on its head. there can never be a one-size-fits-all solution for any problem. and the moment you go trying to tailor make something, people will start crying foul.

this is exactly why I say self-censorship is the only solution. personally, I come across a lot of good stuff and even more junk. my reaction on seeing junk is simple: laughter. we blow this junk out of proportion by hyping it up. the moment everybody starts ignoring it, it will quietly slink away.

speaking of which, why does everybody expect that useless body called the censor board to impose restrictions and dictate morality? what happened to something called 'parenting'? when a young child encounters something odd or disturbing, the first people he approaches is the parents. it should be the parents' responsibility to explain facts to the child and help him put things into perspective instead of expecting inappropriate content to be labelled with a Jolly Roger.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by blacmagic

speaking of which, why does everybody expect that useless body called the censor board to impose restrictions and dictate morality? what happened to something called 'parenting'? when a young child encounters something odd or disturbing, the first people he approaches is the parents. it should be the parents' responsibility to explain facts to the child and help him put things into perspective instead of expecting inappropriate content to be labelled with a Jolly Roger.

Not sure if you are a parent, but that's a lot of burden on parents you are advocating. I would rather have a governing body make the first call on what is ok for my children to watch than let them watch stuff and then approach me for an explanation. Or keep an eye 24X7 to make sure they don't watch undesirable things.

speaking of which, I don't support raising children in wonderland either. they have to be exposed to the real world, but with correct perspective.

[travelwriter]

I don't think censhorship should exist anymore in principle. All the good virtues that people hoped to have with the censorship rules have come to a naught. That film 'affects' people is a foregone statement but with films hardly having a retention power of more than a week at most, censorship is redundant.

Why should we have censorship? Is it going to make our society any better? Or is the 'ban smoking on screen' tirade going to reduce smoking or drinking? We could say the same thing about physical relationships.

Censhorship does not kill society's ills. All it kills is the freedom of expression. Would a Schindler's List a Saving Private Ryan have the same impact if you removed the bloodshed from it? Or would a Love Actually leave the same mushy after effect if the 'fleshy' scenes were deleted? Did 'Bandit Queen' produce more Phoolan Devis or did Dev result in even more mob violence?

Films are the punching bag for people who do not wish to take responsibilities (read politicians). It is the refuge of people who employ double standards (most of us). Censorship does not serve its purpose, anymore, at least.

[blacmagic]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

Not sure if you are a parent, but that's a lot of burden on parents you are advocating. I would rather have a governing body make the first call on what is ok for my children to watch than let them watch stuff and then approach me for an explanation.

Im not a parent. but I have two of them. they never shied away from explaining anything to me in all its burdensome detail, and that is exactly what I intend to do when I become a parent myself.
I would rather spend time enlightening my kid than let a faceless body dictate morality to him.

oh, and by the way, I was dragged to Kambakht Ishq yesterday and saw the theater chock full of people with their kids. now that movie is a tight backhanded slap in the face of censorship if there ever was one.

[sam_boy]

Sorry if I am deviating from the topic ..

In all the TV channels iPill ads are shown every now and then .. I never gave a thought about this ad until the below incident occurred.

My pregnant friend visited my house and a 5 year old girl ( my neighbor's daughter) asked me .. " Uncle how did she become pregnant .. Did not she use ipills ?? "

I was shocked ...

Well what this ipill is teaching our kids ??? A survey somewhere mentioned these are used by unmarried girls in maximum cases ..

I am not getting into the debate whether it is good or bad for health ... But is it creating a healthy culture ?

Dont you think these ads along with the movies should also be censored and should be shown only at a particular time ???

Sorry if I have deviated from the original topic.

[blacmagic]

Sam, iPill is a [hopefully] safer alternative to messy abortions. "unmarried girls" have been getting into trouble long long before its advent. blaming iPill and contraceptive advertisements for destroying our so called culture is not right.
restricting content to time slots has never worked and will never work. hell, I know kids who use the 'parental lock' to lock parents out of televisions. I did it myself.

[sam_boy]

Originally Posted by blacmagic

Sam, iPill is a [hopefully] safer alternative to messy abortions. "unmarried girls" have been getting into trouble long long before its advent. blaming iPill and contraceptive advertisements for destroying our so called culture is not right.
restricting content to time slots has never worked and will never work. hell, I know kids who use the 'parental lock' to lock parents out of televisions. I did it myself.

My point is I am just scared that by seeing these kind of ads the kids might think that they can do whatever and for all the wrong results iPill is always there ... I just not want them to take it for granted ..... Thats all .. The stuff might be ok but its the kid's perception of the stuff which can cause harm !!!!

[amitk26]

Another point some how Indian censor board is OK to approve partial nudity etc for Hollywood content in English but same is not OK for Indian Languages.

Can not understand the logic fully

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by sam_boy

Sorry if I am deviating from the topic ..

In all the TV channels iPill ads are shown every now and then .. I never gave a thought about this ad until the below incident occurred.

My pregnant friend visited my house and a 5 year old girl ( my neighbor's daughter) asked me .. " Uncle how did she become pregnant .. Did not she use ipills ?? "

I was shocked ...

Well what this ipill is teaching our kids ??? A survey somewhere mentioned these are used by unmarried girls in maximum cases ..

I am not getting into the debate whether it is good or bad for health ... But is it creating a healthy culture ?

Dont you think these ads along with the movies should also be censored and should be shown only at a particular time ???

Sorry if I have deviated from the original topic.

What the ad teaches is that you have an alternative to getting pregnant and doing abortion later.
Its as simple as that.

How you use that information is upto you.
Seems like you are not in favor of two consenting ppl having sex without marriage (and possibly also without any purpose or procreation).

Is it?
If so, then its your opinion, however there will be many others who don't hold this opinion.

For them - info about iPill is very useful.
Censorship is only going to rob them of this information.



In your case, a proper response would've been that your pregnant friend prefers to have the baby, instead of not having it.

Trying to withhold info from kids are only going to make them dumb later in their adult life.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by alpha1

How you use that information is upto you.
Seems like you are not in favor of two consenting ppl having sex without marriage (and possibly also without any purpose or procreation).

Is it?
If so, then its your opinion, however there will be many others who don't hold this opinion.

For them - info about iPill is very useful.
Censorship is only going to rob them of this information.

Unfortunately this is half baked information.
Extended use of the iPill will cause some very nasty side effects on the woman.

For avoiding pregnancy a couple is better off using other means that SHOULD be decided after consulting a Gynac.

The iPill is not a regular contraceptive.
This advt portrays it as such.

Unless, the couple in question does (what the Govt does to us in March) once a year.