Serious filmmakers fear that the controversy surrounding the ‘Beep song’ could hit their desire to legitimately use “expletives” to portray reality in some scenes. A section of filmmakers has argued for using violence and expletives in specific contexts to further the overall narrative of a film.
Slamming the ‘Beep song’, lyricist Kutti Revathi, who had some years ago faced protests from within the film industry for publishing a collection of poems titled ‘ Mullaigal ’ (breasts), said such songs would affect the legitimate rights of artists who aspire to show a mirror to the society.
“A filmmaker demanding the right to show the difficult life of a sex worker or the impact of police brutality is completely different from making a song that promotes hate. I am extremely disappointed,” she commented.
Critically acclaimed filmmaker Vetrimaran’s whose award-winning film, Visaranai , which portrays police brutality, is facing several cuts from the Censors Board, makes a sharp observation saying, “As long as the holistic understanding of cinema eludes all of us, we have no way out of this.” Such aberrations (Simbu’s song) would only protract the deadlock between filmmakers and Censors officials.
S.P.Jhananathan whose film ‘E ’ featured a guy growing up in a slum said that one must not take one ‘swear word’ from a while and judge a piece of work. While disapproving of the ‘Beep song’, he explains, “Early on in my film, ‘ E ’, the lead character tells a local pawn broker that even he could be his father. In the second half, he talks of how the kids in the neighbourhood call him the illegitimate child of a mentally deranged woman. The character played by Pasupathy replies that he should be happy that he doesn’t have a caste or a creed to identify with it. When seen as a whole, I can justify the use of the expletive. But individually, it looks crass.”
