Given our censor board’s penchant for banning and censoring movies, it isn’t a surprise that most of what one would call good cinema can only be watched on streaming platforms. Unfortunately, most doesn’t mean all. That said, there are other ways you can access the force, young padawans.
1. Fire (1996)
Deepa Mehta genius is often confused for controversy in India. So, when the movie Fire tried to explore same-sex relationships, we Indians didn’t enjoy that very much. So the film was banned. Even to this day, the only way you could only watch it is if you download it somehow.
2. Inshallah Football
This 2010 documentary is about a footballer from Kashmir who was denied a passport to go to Brazil and play under the pretext that his father was a militant in the 90s. The movie was earlier given an A certificate but the censor board later changed its mind and banned the film.
3. Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen simply didn’t want to comply with the Indian censor boards’ policy of shooting a ‘no smoking’ disclaimer every time someone smokes on screen.
4. Water
Deepa Mehta’s Water was an important film about the life of a young child-bride turned widow, who now had to survive the primitive and amoral regulations of a regressive Indian society. Naturally, it did not sit well with the stakeholders of said society and the movie faced the banhammer.
5. Sins
The film told the story of a priest from Kerala falling in love with a woman and gets sexually involved. This did not sit well with many, who believed the movie went against Catholicism. Hence, the film the banned.
6. Magic Mike XXL
Apparently, people here don’t like naked men either. Honestly, one couldn’t tell from the number of people openly peeing on the streets but you can only do such much against city hall. So, banned.
Go on then. Find someone who is in their 30s. They know all the VPN and all the other loopholes. Watch a film like your elders did.