"FIRE" in the belly of society

Before some days I was surfing channels on the TV when I caught a channel which was broadcasting one of the several cine award functions. I can’t remember the name, and I don’t want to do that because I have more useful works to do. The best critics’ award was given to Ms. Deepa Meheta for her film “Water”. She came and made a brief but the most sensible speech. I can’t totally quote the speech but it said that, “It is a nice feeling to be in a stage where people acknowledge your work and to receive an award for your work, instead of seeing your effigy burnt down to ashes and people shouting slogans against you.” I was really impressed by that speech and its meaning. I have watched “water”. It is a really wonderful movie and I recommend those people who are shouting slogans against it to see it just once. It shows the tragedy of child widows along with many others in the streets of Banaras, the holiest city of Hindus. They fight for their survival, their rights which are denied to them by the so called society and its unwritten, double standard and unfair rules. It shows the anger and the helplessness of the widow to the contemporary society and the so called master of the religions. It also describes a pathetic life of a child widow, who is too young to know what is happening to her and why she is barred from eating twice a day, why she is bared from playing with a cute puppy and barred from going to her mother’s lap, which she considers the safest heaven of the world. There are different angles of the story and each of the angels is described beautifully and acted brilliantly. The film unmasks the predators in the societies who are looming large and are having fun with the loop holes of the system and the society. The young and not so young widows are forced in to prostitution by the pimps who can be found along with the dogs and garbage in the streets of the most holy city in the Hindu mythology. There is nobody to take care of those helpless souls and they are treated as an outcast who is good for nothing. There is no question of protest or questioning the society about its rules, just a silent suffering. Those brave hearts who ever dare to speak out or question the existing system or ever try to change the system are crushed by the system very brutally.
Another film I can remember from the same director is “Fire”. Though I haven’t seen the film, thanks to the ban, I know the subject and have read about it. It also touches the raw nerve of the society, a society where lesbian relationship is seen as a sin. There are two women who are unsatisfied with their family as well as sex life and have decided to enjoy on their own way. But eventually they are caught red handed and all the hell fell on them. Though the subject is quite controversial and needs special attention, it is always appreciable to show the naked truth of the society.
Recently the well known Bangladeshi writer Ms. Taslim Nasreen, writer Sir Salman Rushdie, the famous Indian painter M F Hussain faced the music of the society for their work in literature and art respectively. Ms. Taslima unmasks the hard core leaders of Muslim society and the poor condition of women in her society. She herself is a doctor and she is well known of the pathetic condition of woman in Bangladesh who has little or no independence. Ms. Yang San Suki, the leader of opposition of Myanmar who is currently serving house arrest for more than a decade is another fire band activist of human rights. She is suppressed by the Junta dictator of Myanmar, who fires in point blank range to unarmed Buddhist monks protesting against the high inflation and food shortage in the country.
And I can very well know the feelings of people who are under media scrutiny over their acts. The 24X7 news channel runs special programs over you and your acts. They hire professionals to analyze your acts and make you an icon (either for a good reason or a bad reason) all over the world with in a fraction of seconds. You enter millions of drawing room through satellites and dish antennas and people who never took interest on your works start criticizing you like you have made a great sin. And not to mention the politicians make gold out of hay. You step out of your house and hoards of mikes and cameras are waiting to bay for your blood. The situation may arise when you receive death threats (fatwa) from the hard core religious bodies and you flee for your life. You rush to other countries to seek political asylum and you are a refugee in your own country and society. This is the tradition of a globalized world and it is the price some of us have to pay for touching some raw nerves of the society. I am not starting a debate over the fairness of the media and social trials, let the readers decide over the issue.