Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee is convinced that LSD got quite a number of eyeballs initially because of the ?sex? in the title. Equally, he feels a lot of the audience stayed away because of that very word in Love, Sex and Dhokha. But he insists that now due to the correct word-of-mouth, normal movie audiences are watching the film, thus keeping it strong at the multiplexes in the second week.
At Inox, Kolkata, there were at least five shows of LSD in the second week too, as in other metros, including Delhi and Mumbai.
So why is LSD such a hit with audiences? Is debauchery the new attraction at a time when a kiss is no longer taboo and swearwords are common (think Kaminey, DevD) in films?
If films are pushing barriers, there?s a whole new brand of entertainment playing everywhere you look as well. The music has vanished from MTV, to be replaced by reality TV shows, where there is so much profanity that you hear the blip more than the words. Elsewhere on TV, ?regressive? soaps and reality shows are drawing high ratings. Not to talk of the public airing of private selves on platforms like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter.
?Voyeurism is on the rise. Society is voyeuristic. TV shows are voyeuristic,? says Shailja Kejriwal, EVP (content), Imagine. But she insists that there?s more debauchery in society than on TV, where, at least, there?s censorship. Having said that, she points out that we should view reality shows like Swayamvar as a source of entertainment only. ?See it as entertainment, as something which provides a little bit of shock value perhaps, but don?t get into high moral ground issues and don?t be judgmental, as far worse is happening in reality,? she adds.
Bula Bhadra, professor of sociology at Calcutta University, dismisses shows like Swayamvar as ?structural hazards? of television. She roots for the culture of openness that has set in and says boundaries should be flexible. ?We became a very regressive society during colonial times, clinging to our conservative traditions, but now social trends are obviously that of openness and that?s a good thing,? she says. Bhadra admits that while there are ?dull, moribund, non-dynamic shows on TV?, the best of TV also shows us how a democracy works, shines a spotlight on the dark areas of India, mobilises public opinion.
Dibakar Banerjee is thrilled that a group of 50-something went to watch LSD and loved it. ?They understood the subtext of the film. After all, the story is universal, it?s about a society that is being pushed and pulled and about individuals who are under pressure,? he points out. In that sense, LSD?s success is not about sex, and it?s a ?genuinely contemporary film because my eye is on life around me?. ?If the film has succeeded, it?s because it?s a ?complete entertainer?, which is the glue,? says Banerjee. Calling himself a practical film-maker, he says audiences can see through boring, preachy films and adopting a holier-than-thou attitude is a no-no.
?The onset of multiplexes, satellite cable and Internet has broadened horizons,? says Milap Zaveri, director, Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai, which releases on April 9, and writer of Jhankar Beats, Masti and Hey Baby. ?We are not as hypocritical as before. There?s freedom of expression, creativity doesn?t have borders and nobody is forced to do anything,? he adds. If Anurag Kashyap?s DevD got a huge following, it?s because people could identify with characters, who seemed familiar, living in a voyeuristic world, making mistakes and learning to cope.
And yet, Indian society can be regressive like anything. Can painters get away with freedom of expression? Or writers, for that matter? Or are they bound by social rules that can be broken only at one?s peril? Painter MF Husain and writer Taslima Nasreen have been living in exile for years ?for breaking boundaries?. While Husain, at 94, has given up his Indian citizenship for Qatar after he found it difficult to return to India following the controversy over his painting Hindu gods in the nude; Nasreen, twice exiled from native Bangladesh and then India for her radical views on feminism and Islam, has been forced to live in Europe
?If you don?t like something, close your eyes, you have that option,? says Zaveri. Recently in Delhi, Salman Rushdie took the government to task for the way it handled Husain and also for banning his Satanic Verses. He said India was the first to ban the book, and alleged it stood with countries like Iran and Pakistan in suppressing freedom of speech.
?There?s no stress on originality,? admits Bhadra, adding, ?There?s too much of consumerism, everything is commodified.? She warns against this trend and also harps on the fact that one must realise the difference between virtual and reality. ?In a wired world, we may be getting modern, but we are getting lonelier too and civil society, comprising individuals, must understand the limitations of virtual reality.?
If shows like Emotional Atyachar on television have touched a chord, and acquired a cult following, says Kejriwal, it?s because deep down, in an age of way too much information, everyone is insecure about relationships and it helps couples to talk about it. ?Films and TV are the audio-visual extension of what?s happening in society,? she adds.
It may not be a very pretty society, but as sociologists point out, ?at least we are not sweeping everything under the carpet. Thanks to prying eyes everywhere, many things are now out in the public domain?.
Zaveri rues the loss of privacy? ?the cellphone and Internet took care of it??but says that?s a small price to pay for a society that is learning to discuss and debate and shed inhibitions.
Welcome to a brave new world.