Censor Strike: Middle-Finger goes from Ungli

26 Nov 2014

The entire cast of Rensil D'Silva's eagerly-awaited Ungli has been seen going around showing the middle finger to whoever cares to look.

Rensil says it is an act of defiance expressing the indignance and contempt that the film's characters feel for the corruption all around them.

Alas, the censor board isn't sporting enough to see the lighter side of the finger. They've chopped off at least two shots of the characters flashing their middle finger.

The middle finger has always been a point of dispute for the censor board. Recently, in Abhishek Sharma's The Shaukeens, Dimple Kapadia's middle-finger had to be chopped off from the screen at the last minute as it was found to be objectionable.

Curiously, the Censor Board Of Film Certification (CBFC) had no problems with Kareena Kapoor showing the finger to Saif Ali Khan in last week's release Happy Ending . Maybe women are allowed to be rude to their husbands? Says Rensil, "Yes, there were some changes in the dialogue and two shots of the middle finger had to go. Which was a reasonable cut considering we a got a UA certificate." Rensil feels it is very important for his film's message to go out as far and wide possible. "We've seen angry and violent films on corruption. But we've never really had a film on corruption that is funny.

Ungli , in that sense, breaks new ground." Rensil D'Silva who wrote the ground-breaking anti-corruption film Rang De Basanti feels corruption should not be addressed only as a problem at the high political levels. "We are habituated to billion-rupee scams and exposes. But what about corruption at the grassroot level? What about the autorickshaw driver who refuses a passenger? What about those potholes that create havoc in our lives? The potholes won't go away because of my film. But at least Ungli looks at the problem of corruption from where the common man gets affected." Rensil says Ungli throws forward a new structure of storytelling. "If Rang de Basanti gave us a new language of filmmaking, I can confidently say Ungli gives us a new form and content."