India is a democracy and we all have freedom of speech. We are all taught about our democratic composition from our school days. However, the real question is, how much of it do we exercise and experience, are we able to protest against it being denied to us in the dominating socio-political setup?
This is with regards to the movie Unfreedom which was banned by the Censor Board in India.
The director of the movie Raj Amit Kumar today released a video where he appeals everyone to sign a petition addressed to the prime minister of India to protect rights of freedom of expression of all Indian citizens. The video questions the functioning of Censor Board and the way it passes imbecile decisions without batting an eyelid.
In the video, filmmaker Raj Amit Kumar states that the Censor Board should ‘rate’ or ‘certify’ a movie instead of banning and offering cuts. He also challenges that he will keep sending these signed petitions to PMO and Censor board until there is a real change.
In order for this petition campaign to be successful, and for a real change to happen for all Indians, the filmmaker seeks support from everyone who believes in freedom of speech.
The movie remarkably questions the dominant and patriarchal structures we all live in, which primarily aim to maintain the status quo. It questions the heteronormativity as the rightful way of being and depicts the struggle between the powerless and powerful institutions of our society. With a sharp focus on the violence that fundamentalism and homophobia gives birth to, the movie gives an insightful criticism to both. We believe that it is our right as viewers to be allowed to watch the movie freely without any restrictions and labels put on our democratic rights. Therefore, we would like all our supporters to join in and sign the petition.
Below is the video featuring the director.