Bollywood’s new poster boy for liberal thoughts, Anurag Kashyap, had just come out with his new flick, Manmarziyaan, starring Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and Abhishek Bachchan in prominent roles. Touted as Anurag’s first romantic take, Manmarziyaan fell prey to clichéd treatment only too synonymous with the A list filmmakers like Karan Johar.
Be it over the top romantic scenes, or the ultra feminist approach, Manmarziyaan failed to impress the audience much, and despite the intensive promotions, the film, made on a budget of Rs. 30 crores, earned barely Rs. 20 crores in the first week, deeming the film at best an average grosser.
However, this is not why the film is at the centre of a new controversy. As the Censor Board examined the film and approved it for public release, the makers agreed to some cuts as recommended. However, being the darling of the liberals that he is, Anurag Kashyap got miffed with this decision and insulted the producers for the same in his following tweets:
Before my tweet is taken down -Congratulations . Here by all problems of Punjab are solved and Sikh youth have been saved . Happy to be back in LaLa land again. Next time you are threatened by a film please call Kishore Lulla directly on Eros knows how to solve matters in minutes pic.twitter.com/4yqU3T9utK
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) September 20, 2018
Thanks to @anuragkashyap72 & Censor Board to accept the responsibility & delete the scenes. It's an irony that when Anurag Kashyap wanted to solve the drug problem with @UdtaPunjabFilm_, it had so many cuts by CBFC but in @manmarziyanfilm when it was unnecessary, CBFC let it go. pic.twitter.com/g8RvLb4h7n
— Jasveer Singh (@jasveer_earth) September 20, 2018
However, when one takes a closer look at the cuts, they’re not unreasonable either. The recommended cuts were made in the light of the actors having a smoke before entering the gurdwara for the Anand Karaj ceremony, which is the official marriage ceremony among the Sikhs. Since smoking just before the ceremony and apparently outside the gurudwara is not something that the Sikhs would be extremely delighted about, the producers thought it wise to remove the unnecessary scenes.
Even the producer of the movie and an acclaimed filmmaker in his own right, Aanand L Rai, echoed the sentiments as he clarified the reason for making the necessary cuts. To quote him, “….The decision of deleting the scenes was taken by Colour Yellow Productions. I thought if they are hurting someone’s sentiments, I might as well take them out as that’s not what my film is about. I understand Anurag Kashyap’s hurt feelings over the cuts, but I had to take a practical decision since exhibitors in Punjab and Jammu were refusing to screen Manmarziyaan.”
However, it seems that his concerns fell on deaf ears, especially for the Anurag Kashyap, who deemed these cuts as an ‘attack on their freedom of speech and expression’. In his support, Taapsee Pannu came out with the following tweet:
I am sure this edit will assure that no Sikh will ever Smoke and no woman will ever think about ANYONE else while getting married in a Gurudwara. THIS surely will make Waheguru proud and assures that MY religion is the purest,most righteous and peaceful ! #Proud 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) September 20, 2018
Such a tweet was not only bizarre from her side, but also indicative of the fact that the liberty the Manmarziyaan brigade requires is not of creative liberty, but the freedom to jeer at every religion except the ‘peaceful’ one. If you don’t believe us, see the further tweets:
I am sure waheguru and his army are aware of that too :) and just when they r done editing the film (and all other films) they will go ahead n handle these Real world issues too https://t.co/UUE8WINn3u
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) September 20, 2018
But y only that sir ? There is a pre marital relationship shown in the film m sure that’s also against a pure and righteous religion. I think u should protest against that as well. https://t.co/Z5a3shAAbV
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) September 20, 2018
Uffo ab toh there will be a protest to remove that singh from your name. You have totally disgraced the entire Sikh community by enjoying a film where characters CHOSE to lead a certain life without taking approvals from leaders of certain sort. Tch tch. So sad https://t.co/bDC0s0n2I1
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) September 20, 2018
Looking by these tweets, it seems that Swara Bhasker’s earlier and rather bizarre justification of love jihad was just the tip of the iceberg. The deep contempt for the Sikh community as shown by Taapsee Pannu only reflects the hypocrisy elite Bollywood is well notorious for. When everything else failed, like in the recent case of Sania Mirza, victim card came to Taapsee’s rescue:
Ohooooo! Thank u so much for introducing me to the new rule that u aren’t allowed to get married into a gurudwara after u have smoked a night before. Now I shall keep that in mind when I get married. 🙏🏼 https://t.co/e0Qt06I7xW
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) September 20, 2018
Sir will u protest for that also? Just like how u will decide what a bride thinks in her head in a gurudwara, I think it’s perfectly fine for u to tell me what should be my tone on twitter. Any other rules of living m missing out on ? https://t.co/nxDaaDxMve
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) September 20, 2018
It’s a real shame that Taapsee stooped this low to promote her film, though it’s nothing surprising, since she had earlier mocked the Hindus through her Hinduphobic propaganda movie ‘Mulk’. From the promotional campaign to the actual content in the movie, you name it and both the makers and Taapsee Pannu did everything in order to defame the majority community in the name of addressing the ‘problem’ of Islamophobia.
It’s another matter altogether that Manmarziyaan turned out to be a mere average grosser, only managing to earn a lifetime total of Rs. 20 crores domestically. The atrocious rant that she resorted to in order to further the cause of the director didn’t help her either. Thankfully the masses saw through their malicious propaganda, and rejected the film outright. We hope that sanity is restored to Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu and they see through their mistakes.
