Archive for October 7, 2007

No Sex Please, We are Hypocrites

October 7, 2007 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Sex

By: Shreema Ningombam *

This is in response to an article written by Ranjan Yumnam, ‘No Sex Please , We are Manipuris’. Here I am particularly concern about the issues of gender, censorship and emulation of other cultures reflected not only in Manipuri cinema but in its very society.

Yes! Manipuri society is conservative but we need to question what kind of a conservatism it is.

It is a kind of a conservatism where women are not allowed to drink but their husbands can come home drunk and commit marital rape, women are not allowed to reveal too much cleavages but can go to any gloomy restaurant and shed clothes, women are not allowed to go out late in the night but they must elope if they are not sent back by as early as seven thirty in the evening. As far as laughing not loud or not eating prior to their husbands’ meal is concerned I can only say that these are the extreme violation women’s inner selves.

Every desire that springs from a woman’s heart is crushed in its very bud. In the colonial era it was ‘white man’s burden’ to civilise, rationalise and modernise the people in the colonies. Similarly it has now become ‘all men’s burden’ to civilise, censor or chastise the women of the world. The baggage of dignity, prestige and every virtue is thrown on the back of women.

Men seem to have no share in carrying this burden. Women cannot falter their steps in carrying the burden otherwise they will be ostracised. It seems that it is the universal duty of men to make sure that their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters carry these burdens well. Why all the parameters of the virtues available on this earth are applicable only to women?

In this big globe you would not find any yardstick to judge the morality and chastity of any man. By the way I am strictly against judging anyone’s morality because it belongs to someone’s private domain which is supposed to be inaccessible to anyone. Unfortunately the distinction between the public and private domain has been increasingly blurred because of the political and societal decay Manipur is facing at the moment.

As far as censorship of any kind is concerned, it should be well remembered that censorship is a phenomenon of totalitarian societies like those of Hitler and Mussolini. The world has grown out of their brutal inhuman and repressive regime.

We need to transcend beyond any kind of repression on freedom of expression and listen to what one has to say in any matter. A healthy, debatable and plural society is the need of the hour. Paternalism is for those who are not grown up enough to judge for themselves.

I feel our Manipuri Citizens are well aware, educated and broad minded enough to judge for themselves. If one has to propose any kind of censorship it should be self censorship .It should be what Ishiah Berlin called the positive liberty, a liberty excercised in the light of understanding, self awareness by taking control of one’s life and realizing one’s fundamental purposes.

As far as emulation of Hindi, English or Korean movies is concerned I think emulation of any kind dilutes one’s culture, art as well as society. The best is home grown products without any unnecessary influences which can erode our culture. The product may not be glamorous or grand but it is something that we can genuinely call ours.

I still remember watching “Matamgi Manipur” and “Myopigi Macha”. The simplicity and authenticity is the trait those movies undeniably possess. In art, literature, cinema or culture what counts is authenticity and originality. Emulation should be the last thing a real artist can think of doing.

One should not forget that a society and its systems if left unquestioned, unexamined and uncritical become barren and stagnant. If we want a vibrant, thriving and progressive society we need debates, discussions, tolerance and healthy competition of all ideas however revolutionary they may be.

These are the ways to build what Robert Putnam called ‘social capital’ that is mutual trust and collaboration among the citizens .We should take care that in the pursuit of these courses women’s and other subjugated classes’ voices are not lost in the din created by ‘menfolk’. Consensus should be the strategy and it should have the last say in any matter.

”You have nothing to lose but your chains”
Women of the world unite!

For all practical purposes this unity is not against any man .The unity is against those structures and ideologies which constraints the freedom of women or perhaps even men’s at times. Those ideologies need not necessarily be embedded exclusively in the minds of men but they can reside in the minds of women or even in the minds of our unacknowledged third gender the eunuchs. The fight is against the fear of insecurity, the fear of being ostracised, the fear created by this very society neither with which we can live nor without which we can survive.

We want an oxegenated society where the air is composed of awareness, understanding and respect for each other regardless of sex, gender or class. It is the moral obligation of every citizens to practice atleast if not propagate the ideals of equality, awareness and concern of any social issues.

As much as charity begins at home I feel gender emancipation also begins at home.

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* Shreema Ningombam contributes to e-pao.net for the first time. The writer is currently doing M.Phil in Political Science at the University of Delhi and can be contacted at shreema_n(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)in . This article was webcasted on October 06th, 2007

Source: http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=reviews.movies.No_sex_please_we_are_Hypocrites

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No sex please, we are Manipuris

October 7, 2007 at 9:41 pm · Filed under Sex

By: Ranjan Yumnam *

Manipuri films are often close imitations of the Bollywood flicks in form, if not the content. Song, music and dance are one of the most important ingredients in a Manipuri film. Like some of the Mumbai’s potboilers, Manipuri heroes woo their love-interests in the sky, mountains, snow and the oceans.

Hero-laden helicopters fly into a song sequence out of nowhere, even if the hero is an unemployed chap in the film. Shoots are done in foreign locations like Singapore as a trick to draw audience. Actors change their clothes many times in a span of five minutes.

Even the music scores are adapted from the South Indians. Almost all the usual ‘aesthetics of attractions’ of Mumbai cinema are employed to gain eyeballs as Manipuri filmmakers struggle to recover their production cost in a highly competitive market that is confined to the Imphal valley.

So you might ask what is Manipuri about Manipuri films.

Despite the cosmetic similarities with other regional cinemas, Manipuri cinema has begun to come on its own. This is largely a result of self-regulation of the Manipuri film industry and in part because of a sort of cultural regimentation imposed on the filmmakers by the underground organisations.

Take for example, the song and dance sequence. Manipuri songs are done very tastefully without any display of tits and bums and that makes it eminently fit to be watched together in a family of three generations without any awkwardness and embarrassments.

Elements of sexual titillation are completely absent from the Manipuri cinema, that compared to it, a typical item number of Mallika Sherawat would look like a soft porn stuff. No rain-soaked blouses for the Manipuris.

The Manipuris are a very conservative people. It’s an article of faith among the Manipuris that women should not drink wine, not reveal too much cleavage, not go out late in the night, not laugh too loud, not have food before their husbands do and so on.

These values get reflected in the Manipuri cinema.

The Imphalwood filmmakers are aware of the consequences if they cross the line of decency and fantasy. The community has a powerful impact on what one can do in Manipur—not only in the films but also in other walks of life.

If a filmmaker ignores the sensitivities of the Manipuri populace, she is in for a sure trouble. That trouble can also come from the insurgents who considers Manipuri cinema to be a nationalistic product and a cultural ambassador.

This notion has led to some actors being prohibited from working together in films because of their too ‘inappropriate’ on-screen and off-screen chemistry. In an extreme case, a female actor was shot at her legs because she acted in an erotic scene. Some of her male colleagues have paid a direr price: they have been executed while others fled to neighbouring states. This happened about a decade ago.

Many rounds of parleys have taken place between the Film Forum, Manipuri, the apex body of the Imphalwood and the underground organisations on censorship issues. While the Film Forum, Manipur has been zealous about guarding its artistic freedom, the UGs have been insisting on enforcing a code of conventions that purport to uphold the dignity of the Manipuri culture and society. A middle ground has been struck which seeks to satisfy both the filmmakers and the UGs.

This mutually agreed code is enforced by the preview committee of the Film Forum, Manipur. From now on, a director must submit his print and screen it before the said committee for clearance.

The committee approves the film on the basis of some criteria, most of which to determine whether the film transgresses the line of decency, misrepresents the culture of the Manipuris or imitates too profusely from Bollywood.

The members of this committee are known to show their utmost displeasure at the sight of sarees, sindur, mangal sutra, heavy make-up, exposed ribs and ‘vulgar scenes’. A director has to comply if cuts are recommended in any portion of the film. Only then can it be submitted formally to the Central Board of Film Censorship at Guwahati for censorship certificate.

Such a system does generate lots of bad feelings between the committee and the filmmakers. It also doesn’t help that most Manipuri filmmakers have grown up on a diet of Bollywood movies—their filmmaking approaches and techniques are uncannily similar to those of the Mumbai’s films.

It appears to be quite a temptation for a Manipuri director to make use of alien cultural symbols, often subconsciously, like a mangal sutra, a North Indian usage which does not exist in the Manipuri society. The preview committee acts as a filter to sift through such kind of disconnect between the reality and the cinematic representations.

Film activists mindful of the anomalies in the Manipuri films exhort the filmmakers to look elsewhere for inspiration if Manipuri film has to carve out its own destiny.

Korean films are being promoted as alternative films that Manipuris can emulate. The realist feel of the Korean films with their simplicity, brevity of emotions and subtlety are a model for a new breed of young filmmakers.

The vice like grip of Bollywood is slowly but surely loosening as Korean and Latin American movies make their foray into Manipur, via the international market at Moreh, a border town straddling Manipur and Myanmar.

There are merits and demerits of extra-institutional/official censorship. On the brighter side, Manipuri films are becoming more realistic and distinct from the homogenous commodity of Bollywood.

Liberals are however worried that it is a form of cultural regimentation that restricts freedom of artistic expression and experimentation. The line between vulgarity and art is a thin line and it is a difficult task differentiating between the two.

In Manipur, it is the insurgents and the like-minded members in the Film Forum, Manipur that is shouldering this tricky task.

Comments, questions, suggestions, brickbats and bouquets are welcome any time

Cross-posted at Imphalwood Blog

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* Ranjan Yumnam, contributes regularly to e-pao.net . Potential stars can write to him at http://manipuri-cinema.blogspot.com
This article was webcasted on May 11th, 2007

Source: http://e-pao.net/epSubPageExtractor.asp?src=reviews.movies.No_sex_please_we_are_Manipuris

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Great acts of honour and chivalry

October 7, 2007 at 9:37 pm · Filed under The Sangai Express

By Donn Morgan Kipgen

If we go through the recent bloody events and acts of terror in the last 2 years, it’s almost embarrassing and diabolic to say the least. Some unholy acts and disdainful show of vain might, i.e gunboat diplomacy, amount to uncivilised Tomahawk Diplomacy backed by acts of terrorism which also can be termed as Acts of Cowardice. Some reckless acts of dishonourable principles committed independently by both the State’s law enforcement agencies and various UG militant outfits completely compromised their very own duties and principles. Honour, duty, nation, moral courage and self-sacrifice have all been openly trampled and knowingly thrown overboard by modern man-at-arms and man-of-wars to suit their own interest and wishful ideology at the heavy cost of precious lives.

The terrorised citizens understandably observed all dishonourable and the bloody diplomacy on the ringside without any desirable comments. All armed forces and UG militants have many lessons to learn pertaining to honour, pride, prestige and acts of chivalry which directly inspired military and rebel commanders, special forces commandos and even civil servants to follow the civilised Right Paths to do the right things in times of armed conflicts. May be the actions of the Japanese Shogun’s Ninjas and the fame Samurais which made Japan a mighty military power for countless generations by following the code of Bushido could surely be read and applied here in Manipur to bring thing back to sanity, keeping in mind great acts of chivalry and supreme sacrifices written in history.

In 1974, one Lt. Hiro Onada of the Japanese Imperial Military Intelligence during World War II finally surrendered his rusty Samurai sword to the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, about 29 years after the surrender of Japan in WWII since the Japanese intelligence officer’s last battle order received was to fight to the last man even if the Japs Imperial Army surrendered in that battle-front.

Hence, Lt. Onada kept on fighting for another 28 years, killing over 30 Filipino soldiers with some friends who had since passed away during that time period. He finally laid down his arms after his last commanding officer during WWII personally went there to order him to ‘officially’ surrender at the request of the Filipino Govt. President Marcos gentlemanly accepted the Samurai sword and called him a ‘great soldier’ despite losing over 30 soldiers and had him returned to Japan triumphantly 29 years late. About three years back in 1972, one Japanese NCO, Sgt Yukoi, was stumbled upon by two hunters and marched him to the nearest police station where he learnt that WWII had ended 26 years ago after Japan surrendered in August 1945. Since he and his two comrades-in-arms had not received any order to surrender, they kept on fighting the famous Guam Island and Sgt Yukoi survived on living off the land even after the death of his two colleagues.

When, in August 1945, the pompous and courageous Gen Douglas MacArthur landed at the Yokohoma airfield to oversee the terms of Japanese surrenders, he and his aides, US Military commanders plus other Allied officers did not carry any fire arms, nor was he and other Allied Commanders escorted by combat troops despite the dangerous situation. For this act of displomatical courage, around 30,000 Japanese troops stood on either side of the road with their backs facing him in honour of this great ‘combat-statesman’. And when, as the Viceroy of Japan, thousands of hostile protestors were blocking his route to the Imperial Palace demonstrating their anti-American policy, Gen MacAuthur non-chalantly refused an escort party of US Marines troops. For this act of courage, the even more chivalrous protestors made a way for him and bowed to him as a mark of respect. During the American war of Independence, the famous Capt Pattrick Ferguson took a clean sight of Gen George Washington while overseeing the front line with his junior commanders. Just when Capt Ferguson was to take a heart shot, Gen Washington turned around which prevented Capt Ferguson to shoot a man on his back- that’s the rule of engagement even in the wild wild west. Shooting any person on his back was taken as act of supreme cowardice. But for his high sense of principle, a single bullet from Capt Ferguson could have changed the course of the American history.

Even during the free-fire Vietnam war, American snipers were dubbed as ‘murder Incorporated’ by the regular US troops. The infamous My Lai Massacre of 1968 in Vietnam was exposed by a US soldier, military photographer and a helicopter pilot of the USAAF, just like the recent exposure of the atrocities upon Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Gharaib Prison. During the American Civil War period, a Southerner Lady, Ms Betty Van Metre, whose husband James was a PoW as a Confederate soldier, took a heavily injured and an abandoned Lt Henry Bedell, D-Coy, 11th Vermont Volunteers of the northern Union Army and hid him in absolute secrecy.

With supreme Christian value Ms Bettie had unhesitenedly despite one of her brothers being killed by the Union troops and another taken as PoW, (like her young husband) at the famous Battle of Gettysburg. Though the lady could be shot dead as traitor by the Confederate Army, she took into account that the injured union officer too would have a wife like her, praying for her husband’s safety. She valiantly took the recovering officer back to the nearest Union Army HQ much to the utter surprise of the general officers who were told that Lt Bedell had succumbed to his injuries within the enemy line. For her supreme courage and charity, the US Secretary of War issued an order to release the Lady’s husband wherever he might be interned. With the help of Lt Bedell and his wife, the young lady’s husband was found and promptly released, with gifts and awards.

Alexander the Great had a good teacher in Aristotle. That’s why he specifically ordered the famous Theban poet Pindar and his family be spared during his conquest of Greek City-states. After the bloody Battle of Hyd- espas, the resilient King Porus was brought in to Alexander’s court, tied in chains. When asked how should he be treated, the proud King Porus defiantly answered, ‘As a King treats a King’. Alexander the Great promptly released him and made him the ruler of all the conquered areas in North west India for his exceptional courage and leadership quality. Sir Winston Churchil openly praised the German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, in the British Parliament even as Rommel smashed apart the Allied forces in North Africa. And when commander of the British ‘Phantom Army’, the SAS, Col David Stirling was taken as PoW, Erwin Rommel personally congratulated him for his astounding successes and supreme courage instead of being shot as a spy. Moreover, when Adolf Hitler issued an order that 10 prisoners be shot for every German soldier killed by the commandos and Resistance forces, Rommel reportedly threw in the order in the dust bin, saying ‘he (Hitler) soiled our uniform’ with his cowardice act of terrorism.

Following Rommel’s honourable act of silent defiance, other non-Nazi German general officers also ignored such unmilitary battle-order by their Fuhrer. Two supreme sacrifices made by the British and the Allied commanders during WWII were still unparalleled. The British Military Intelligence (MI) had just finally decoded and uncoded the German’s super-secret Enigma Code which won the war for the Allies. During a huge bombing mission, an order for a new remote target in the industrial town of Coventry, England, was sent by German High command to their strategic bombers’ groups of the Luftwaffe through the secret Enigma coded message which was intercepted and duly uncoded even as the new most unexpected raid was within an hour time period. If an air-raid siren being sounded and batteries of anti-aircraft weapons were to greet the Luftwafe bombers in this most surprise of raids, the German military HQ, i.e. OberKom-mando der Wehrmacht (OKW), and its enterprising intelligence section would surely deduced or realised that the super-secret Enigma Code was definitely cracked open by the British miltary intelligence HQ.

Hence, no early air-raid warning nor any heavy anti-aircraft’s systems were put into action and thus the British High command and senior intelligence officers had to bear painfully and watch the total bombing carnage carried out by the Germans. And when the Allied intelligence learned through the German Enigma coded message that the aircraft which was to carry the British PM, Sir Winston Churchill, was to be sabotaged, the British MI had to rope in a Churchill double to board the would-be doomed aircraft since they cannot cancell the flight altogether to protect their knowledge of the Enigma Code. The RAF plane did blow up apart sans the real Winston Churchill but the Germans thought that it was a routine part of MI’s deception plan. Otherwise, to the German OKW, why would a pilot, crew members, senior officers etc on board the RAF be knowingly sacrificed if the British MI knew the sabotage planned by German agents was intercepted and uncoded! It was because of these two supreme sacrifices, millions of Allied soldiers were saved and helped won WWII, with the German OKW blissfully unaware that their super secret Enigma was actually cracked open and used against them all along throughout the war period.

Upto the 19th century AD, Kings, Princes, Generals or top most military commanders had never been targeted in any battle field by both the fighting forces. Kings and generals were considered honourably as two Champion chess Grandmasters. Moreover, opposing commanders talked to each other in some cases at the end of the day’s battle. Had not this unwritten law of non-targetting kings and top most commanders in the bloody heat of battles in most chivalrous manner honoured, we would not have Alexander the Great, Emperor Julius Caesar, Akbar the Great, Emperor Napoleon, Emperor Ashoka, General Ulyses Grant, etc as we know now them as great Conquerors, Generals and Emperors.

Source: The Sangai Express

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