ON ARTISTIC FREEDOM AND THE ARTISTES AND OTHERS BEING SENSITIVE DISCERNING AND RESPONSIBLE

 ON ARTISTIC FREEDOM

AND THE ARTISTES AND OTHERS BEING

SENSITIVE DISCERNING AND RESPONSIBLE

 

IN SOLIDARITY WITH POET LEENA MANIMEKALAI

 

Latha Ramakrishnan

It is disheartening to see the way Poet Leena Manimekalai is being hounded for her documentary KAALI. Or rather, for the poster uploaded for the documentary in which Kaali is smoking and holding the LGBT Flag. Several cases are filed against her. And there are some who insist that she should be arrested. 

 Poet Leena Manimekalai has said that she has nothing to lose and that the documentary should be seen first before being subjected to any unwarranted adverse criticism and censure.

 Why should she say that she is prepared to die for her cause? Has she received any such real threat? If so it is highly condemnable. Has she?

 True, smoking is injurious to health - but, is it such a terrible sin for us to feel offended at seeing goddess Kali smoking! In fact she is one who has relished drinking the blood of the evil ones!

 If we are to condemn the practice of demeaning gods, especially Hindu gods, there are umpteen number of movies, social media posts and the speeches of political leaders and the programmes in Television Channels which so casually and coarsely depict gods, especially Hindu gods.

 It is not necessary to ask why the gods of other religions are not dealt with so. This query doesn’t serve the purpose, I feel. Why should anyone feel the necessity to decry the faiths and beliefs of others and even their own people?

 Leena Manimekalai is a sensitive poet and film-maker. Her recent film Maadathy bears testimony to this fact. And her poetic corpus bears testimony to that.

 Her views, political and otherwise may not be agreeable to some of us but that shouldn't make us cast aspersions on her having some ulterior motive in this depiction of goddess Kaali.

 In fact she through some of her creations have incurred the wrath of different sections of people which goes to say that she doesn’t work with the hidden agenda of demeaning a particular section of society.

 One should see the documentary first and then decide whether it has the agenda of denigrating Hindu gods overtly or covertly.

 As she has rightly pointed out, the same poster of Kaali as conceived by her which is decried as objectionable has been and is being uploaded and displayed again and again by those who condemn it as demeaning the goddess of Kaali. Here is a link of the video in YouTube uploaded by the reputed Karnatic singer Sudha Raunathan displaying several portraits of Goddess Kaali that are in vogue.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kaali+video+by+sudha+raunathan

When we see them along with the singer’s devout voice singing the emotionally-charged lines of Mahakavi Bharathiar we would surely get goosebumps. Somebody may call them obscene but then, can we say that it is the intention of the singer to show Goddess Kaali in bad light?

 Gods, especially Hindu gods are all inclusive and all encompassing and hence Goddess Kaali holding the LGBT Flag need not prove offensive.

 People, especially artistes should be sensitive not to hurt the beliefs and sentiments of fellowmen.

 At the same time, god of a particular religion or the concept of god as such should not be used as a trump card or an exclusive domain by both the sects – the believers as well as the non-believers _ to suffocate the true artistes.

 And, we can engage ourselves in a dignified discussion and debate instead of demeaning the gods of different sects. The coarse and abusive language used against a lone artiste is terrible, shocking and disgusting and it would enrage Goddess Kaali for sure. If one hase to argue his or her  case against something which he or she doesn’t approve of, should the person concerned has to stoop so low as to use sheer abuse as his or her line of argument? Then what moral ground can one have to point at other’s alleged misconduct?

True, the tendency to denigrating Hinduism and Hindu gods is on the rise these days but that shouldn't give the right to anybody not to the denigrators nor to the believers, to narrow down the essence and expanse of Hindu gods and goddesses, I sincerely feel.

 Already things are boiling - let not the artistes and the audience worsen the situation, please. For, in each and every case where the situation turns worse, it is the hapless common people who bear the brunt of it all.