Dignity or hypocrisy? Readers take on the Ek Chhotisi Love Story controversy.

Name: Dilip D'Souza
Your Views: You said it, Deepa. The last straw in all this is Manisha Koirala's appeal to the Shiv Sena. Therefore combining the worst aspects of our glorious culture -- the voyeurism, an ugly attitude towards women, and unchecked goondaism -- in one episode. I hope she is proud.

Name: Calvin Mayben
Your Views: Excellent article written in the right sense analysing the truth behind this whole publicity stunt. The innocent people watching the movie who were injured by hoodlums should file a case and a police complaint against Manisha and the Nut who has the remote control.

Name: Sagar Sule
Your Views: You have pulled words out of my mouth and put it on print! I personally believe every word printed in the above article. I am afraid I did not have the pleasure of being booted out of any cinema theater screening Ek Chhotisi Love Story simply because I did not go and watch it. Going to wath a movie on the first day because of some really cheap and vulgar advertising campaign which does nothing but waste the valuable time of our Mumbai High court does not rank in my diary as the top 1000 things to do on a very busy Friday.

I would like to congragulate the author Deepa Gahlot and the Rediff.com editorial team to have the sight to see through the cloud created by media advertising and print what they felt in their hearts.

Name: Sweta Mathur
Your Views: Read your article about Manisha's recent gossips. Initialy I thought that may be there is something very vulger in the movie that such a hype has been created but I got to know that it is nothing very different from what these people do.

There have been movies when they have been dancing and really having fun, so what is the big deal about it? When they go to parties then they wear clothes which can show them much and when they have to raise an issue then wear a salwar kurta and show that they have never done obscene scenes.

I fully agree with you on this article.

Name: Mahesh KN Patel
Your Views: A pretty strong view. Can you be certain that Manisha is involved with this violent act? People have a right to change their mind and object to something which appears tasteless and derogatory. It must be the job of the censor board to safe guard the viewing public in their own country. It may also be a publicity stunt for more people to go and watch a controversial movie. Violence is bad in any form and seems to be a part of the Indian ways of life, religious groups who seem to have highest morals are not free of violent deeds. I have not seen the film, but I will definitely see it , it seems the film is trying to send a message to women of India to come out of their suppression in a male dominated society.

Name:Krishnan
Your Views:Even though I have not seen the film, I find some of your comments very prejudiced. Especially the one "If an unknown skin flick actress had done the film, it would have been included in the category of those low-budget, soft-porn films with corny titles made specifically for an audience of lowlife, small-town males". This is blatantly biased when you have said that the "average Indian is not an Urban Sophisticate". I do not know what you mean by an "Urban Sophisticate" and is there any grounding to the fact that the so-called "Urban Sophisticate" whoever it is, is lesser perverted or more broad-minded than an "Average Indian/lowlife, small-town males". I would be happy if you can answer the assumptions or presumptions that you have made to come to such a conclusion.

Name:Shankar Pandey
Your Views:I couldnt agree more on your views on the responsibility our film makers should show having the cultural values, and level of consciousness of Indians in mind. This is not to say that we lead a cloistered and protected life where things are censored. Too often we hear or bleeding heart liberals talk of absolute freedom in all forms of expressions. The problem is we pay scant regard to how much of openness can we absorb in a nation where 50% of the people still dont go to school, and most people still have to be told how many children they should have. Lets take some lessons from Khomeinis in Iran, as well as the violent backlash fundamentalists come up with when bombarded with agressive modernity. Lets take the development of a beautiful country like Thailand into a leader of the sex industry. Lets not break up the fragile thread that bind Indian family and society. Lets let the kid next door look upon the the older woman as his aunt or didi. Lets not put a silly Chhotisi Love Story ideas into his head. You are so right when you say that the Indian woman has far too many problems the way it is. Lets not add a few more. I will be very glad if you make your views so strongly that it sinks into our citizens, otherwise the Shiv Sena will take over someday ,just like Khomeini did in Iran.

Name:Nitin Barua
Your Views: I have the following things to say: 1. There are films made in Bollywood that are even more vulgar but don't get so much attention because no A-grade actress consents for such a role. Our urban white collared brethren don't see these kind of Hindi movies. In fact they prefer the original phirang versions, which show absolute hard-core scenes, through CDs/ Net. This would have been the first A-grade softporn movie in Bollywood! So in a nutshell, the country's movie-goers would have got a chance to see a high-profile-Bollywood-actress's more-than-average flesh!! No doubt there was a lot of excitement amongst the audiences. Even women would have thronged the theatres(in Metros) or asked for its tapes!

2. The Role. Right/ Wrong? Per se, a role is a role is a role. As an actress she was just doing her job. It's solely her discretion. The right-wrong question should have been asked and decided by the Censor Board. In the same way one can justify the work done by the Director, the child actor and others. They were practising the craft of cinema, and working for making money like everybody else.

3. Culturally offensive? We practise conservatism in public and in our families, to some extent. But why is it that every town & city has those seedy theatres showing 'hot' films? Why are there video-cassette/ VCD parlors covertly providing adult movies? Why do raddiwallas make a fast buck by renting old copies of Playboy & Penthouse and selling pirated copies of the nauseatingly hot Penthouse Letters? The fact of the matter is -softporn/ pseudoporn or whatever you sociologists and journos call that, is very much available in Indian society but as an undercurrent through print, electronic and definitely online media. But the fact remains that every child is taught about all these things as bad and everyone of us does resist these things to a large extent. We not only preach conservatism but also practise it publicly and to some extent privately. But I'm sure everyone amongst the 40 crores of the Indian population who are urban have seen/ read some kind of 'hot' content at some point in their lives.
But Ek Chhotisi... would have been the cynosure of viewers even without this controversy - because of Koirala. So this movie in particular was bound to create ripples in the socio-politico-cultural circles. The other countless movies (Pyaasi Dulhan, Kunwari Dulhan etc.) fail to get noticed nationally because of little or no media coverage. But the damage to our sensibilities does get done even then.

4. Status quo - (a) Why do we bother ourselves with that lady called Manisha Koirala? Let her do what she wants! Let her go jump, what the heck! Let's not give her undue importance. She can't make us immoral by even taking off all her clothes! Our Indian value system is far too strong to be swayed by such jerks.

(b) If the movie is indeed dangerous then let the censor board nail it properly.

(c) I believe this 'controversy' was brilliantly pre-planned to generate publicity.

(d) If at all the director wronged her by wrongly showing the nude scenes, let Manisha face the music herself.

Name:Neha Bedi
Your Views: Congratulations Deepa, you have nailed the cat. You said exactly what hundreds of other Indian women also think. A woman who has no qualms about doing half naked song and dance scenes should, in the right framework of mind, have no objection to doing this kind of a movie.when she acted in it, or said "Yes" to the role. Surely she knew what she was getting into, she wasn't forced into it. I must say, that as it is our society is unsafe for women, this film only encourages the male hormone to make it worse. Keep up the good work! Cheers!!!!

Name:Sachin Arora
Your View: The writer is quite correct in most of her observations. The point is not whether the movie or the concept of the movie is vulgar or not, the point is that Manisha Koirala knew what she was doing when she acted in the movie. Since she knew what the movie was all about, it's totally inappropriate on her part now to raise hue and cry. Looks like that the real reason why Manisha is angry at the use of the body double is not because of the scenes involved, but because the director has been quoted as saying that one reason he had to resort to the use of the body double is because Manisha is obese. Also, Manisha's approaching the NCW (National Commission of Women) not only smells of sheer hypocrisy, it's absolutely ridiculous. More ridiculous , however, is the fact that the NCW even comes forward to champion such a trivial cause. Seems to me that the NCW hasn't got anything worthwhile to do rather than trying to get some limelight courtesy Ms. Koirala's immature behavior.

Name:Nivedeta Pingle
Your Views:I am in full agreement with the points raised in this article. The Bollywood cinema as such is showing lot of skimpy clothed heroines. It is not a new thing. All this brouhaha is seemingly a attention-seeking device. The songs in movies like Kaante and Road are raunchy enough. The basic theme of this movie is perverted.There exist such voyeurs and exhibitionists in the Indian society, no doubt. But perhaps projecting this in movies makes these things explicitly known to those who did not know of them prior. And those on the borderline get the guts to cross the line and do these things. They feel it is justified due to the glorification the issue gets. And because some of their favorite heroines are doing it they feel like imitating them down to every detail. As with everything else, the matter can be only addressed properly through proper guidance to the young impressionables.

Name:Vicky Vohra
Your Views: I read your article about Ek Chhotisi.... Well, the views expressed were very honest and I agree on the whole. The scenario has raised some questions which are definately very hard to answer ie - How mature is the Indian Audience? What Shashilal Nair has made and what all those scenes are about isn't the issue. No doubt we are getting there but the pace is very slow. Audience have appreciated movies like Chandini Bar though it had some vulgar patches. Talking about boys peeping into other's room isn't an exception. Such incidents happen. Even I have seen boys talking about Mast Auntie or Badhiya Maal. I would say that Indians should now get ready to face some real cinema. Extra marital....under age sex...prostitution....List of issues is very long. Let us be prepared.

Name:Chandra Shekhar Banerjee
Your Views:I think the above column has appropriately depicted the hypocrisy that Miss Koirala is trying to portray.First of all the average Indian audience is not mature enough to handle such movies.The target audience here is the average guy who enjoys such movies, because of which a big chunk of moolah is roped in.Miss Koirala is culprit here as she first agrees to do the film for whatever reasons - money or what ever,and once a person is deeply involved in doing such films he or she is obviously concious of the consequences that may arise post film production i.e the film doing a hit,because of the controversy involved or it drawing a huge crowd because of the skimply clad character(as it will sell in volumes).Now once the film is done and Miss Koirala opposes the screening of the film - because of a difference of opinion (money matter may be a possibility),this proves the highly irresponsible character she is trying to exhibit, as one cannot go back on the consent one has given and the signing of the contract because of a certain consideration.Mr.Nair is certainly not at fault as he could not have forced Miss.Koirala to do the film.Miss.Koirala should be taken to task because of the public damage that she has caused and that she has tried to tarnish the image of director Mr Nair.

Name:Vaskar
Your Views:I agree with what you said to some extent. But to say that 'peeping Tom' behaviour is not in India will not be right.It is not part of our culture or any for that matter ,but it is there in all societies starting from vilages to the metros. Coming to another matter, if you have seen those black and white posters of the movie showing parts of a woman's body,they have been taken (stolen would be a better word) from the site made by a photographer Allan Tegger.That much for cheating.

Name:Khsitij
Your Views: What you have mentioned is true. I think now that Manisha has realised as to what she has done by acting in this film. She now feels insecure. However I don't think she should worry.Because nowadays people like watching nude actresses. Also actresses like getting popularity with this tool.How is it possible they don't know what they are doing? It's become mark of greatness to be bold in our society/on screen. To some extent we have to accept that film is all about fantasy and we get to see people with Good Looks,body unlike we common people.And our that need has to be satisfied. I think if the story demands it can be acceptable.For example if you watch Smita Patil you never felt you are wtahcing a nude actress it was always the character which came to our mind.However it can be veryeasily pointed out what is going on.

Also read:
The Deepa Gahlot Column-Where is your dignity, Manisha?