People won’t take to smoking just because their favourite actor smokes in the reel world
Every time Leonardo DiCaprio or anyone else lights up in the film, The Great Gatsby, a message pops up on the screen warning viewers of the dire consequences of
smoking.
The (dis)credit for killing the joy of going to the movies in India must go to its former Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss who launched a war against smoking eight years ago. His crusade has created a new breed of pariahs – smokers – who have been hounded out from public places, made to suffer ignominies, and compelled to accept their inferiority as both deserved and legitimate. Smokers accept their status and fate grimly, not least because a barrage of statistics has persuaded them about the causal link between their addiction and a variety of health problems.
Yet, even the non-smoking public should oppose the rule demanding film directors insert a warning in every smoking scene they conceive. The rationale behind the rule is specious. Its proponents like Anbumani believe popular actors portrayed smoking on the screen could inspire the impressionable to take up the habit. The warnings superimposed on smoking footage will serve as a countervailing influence, they argue, ignoring how they intrude into the film. The edict has its impact in Nepal, as viewers here also have to watch anti-smoking messages across the screen in Hindi cable programs.
Those who favour the insertion of warning scrolls even in scenes of hair-raising suspense have an intolerant attitude, as also a dim view of human beings. The plebian are incapable of choosing wisely and are denied the opportunity of making choices. In case you think I am a smoker venting my frustration at the slew of anti-smoking laws in India, you must read the utterances of Anbumani, the self-anointed general in the war against smoking.
In a
recent interview to The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, Anbumani criticised the political parties of Tamil Nadu for spawning three cultures in the state. “The first is the culture of freebies, the second, alcohol culture, and the third, cinema culture…we are against all these three cultures,” he said.
Anbumani is entitled to his opinion, but the undemocratic streak in him came to the fore as he etched out the contours of what his PMK party bills as its ideology of ‘New Politics, New Path’. “The first signature,” he said, “a PMK Chief Minister is going to put on a document in 2016 (election) is total prohibition in Tamil Nadu.”
From this peep into his worldview, a few quick conclusions can be drawn about Anbumani. One, he believes it is he who knows what is best for people and, therefore, must decide for them. It’s this certitude of his that led him to campaign for scrubbing out smoking scenes from films altogether, until judicial intervention had the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to settle for the less authoritarian but infinitely irritating measure of inserting the warning lines.
Two, moderation is a word which doesn’t exist in Anbumani’s vocabulary – nothing less than a ban on alcohol would do for him. No question of weaning the people away from alcohol through persuasion, no consideration for those who enjoy a peg or two and are not alcoholics. Like with others who take things to extremes, there exist no shades of grey. The world is divided into smokers and alcoholics and those who don’t puff or quaff.
Three, in equating the culture of cinema with that of liquor and freebies, Anbumani displays a deep disdain for films – and the enjoyment they provide for the masses. He presumably believes films corrupt the viewers and undermine society.
In acquiescing to his over-the-top crusade against smoking – and accepting the government’s rule demanding warnings against tobacco imposed on smoking scenes – we have emboldened him to now think of banning liquor. In case Anbumani does realise his grand dream of becoming the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, don’t be surprised if he were to impose high taxes on cinema to discourage what he presumably believes is a terrible habit.
Anbumani secured his medical degree from the Madras Medical College, so you could say we don’t necessarily imbibe what we see or are taught. Indeed, people won’t take to smoking just because their favourite actor smokes in the reel world.
ashrafajaz3@gmail.com
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