Thursday 7 May 2015

Romedy Now- Ruining Rom-Coms!

I can say that I was the happiest person to know that Romedy Now - a TV channel dedicated to airing movies from the genre "Romantic Comedy or Rom-Coms"- was finally available on Tata Sky!!

And I don't even watch TV. I only watch it for news, sports events and one or two shows that I like to record and watch with my mother. That's about it.



But when I finally saw Romedy Now on the Tata Sky dashboard, I was ecstatic. During the past few days, I discovered that whenever I put the channel, there is a good movie coming which I instantly start watching and then put the next 3-4 on record. Because honestly, Rom-Coms are the best! I totally adore them - they leave me feeling good about friendships, cute relationships and emotions and sometimes bad such as "oh I wish I had such a friend/relationship in my life". But overall, I just connect to them and flow with these kind of movies.

HOWEVER, welcome to Romedy Now - an Indian channel- which has ruined the experience for me! This is what I observed:

1) I am watching this movie, it's going really well. The lead pair is forming a good friendship, there's chemistry and it is all building up to something. Really eager to see how they come together. The scene is going well and BAM. Cut to a random scene. What just happened? Where are we? Oh, they kissed. AND our dear Indian TV Censor Board cut that out entirely! I felt like whaaaaat? And I know this is lame but they were not even anywhere near a bed! They were just kissing- and it was all cut off. No No No, we can't watch two humans in love, kissing each other! What are you saying?

2) Again, another day: Watching a movie. Into the plot. Following the story, ok great. Suddenly there is this woman and there is some hazy thing over her breasts. I wasn't even looking at that and now I have forgotten what was happening and I am focusing on this censored cleavage, wondering what could it be that it had to be censored off like that? Lot of cleavage? Boobs were too big? Boobs weren't the same size? Like WHAT was the problem? And then I am like shit missed what happened there. I wouldn't even have noticed that or thought about it for that long had they not censored it?!! (Oops I have written about Boobs=Breasts on a public platform. Yikes, bye bye blog, I will miss you)



What does this mean? We can watch women in Bollywood jiggle their everything, sing weird double meaning songs with a bunch of leching guys around and some movies which project sick views of how women be treated in society - blame the victim, beti pariyi hoti hai, all that bullshit. But we cannot, no cannot, watch two humans expressing a kiss? Wait, that has to do something with us being Indians and having double standards?

I just cannot understand the reason behind censoring stuff on Romedy Now. Is it because they think if people will watch it, they'll try replicating it? Just like replicating other things shown in Indian movies- how to rob a bank, cheat people, back bitch, rape, murder, become a gangstar, get high on drugs. Those are not censored or no disclaimers are run - is consensual kissing by two adults in love, so horrible that it can corrupt the minds of Indians??

Or do they think by not showing these things, people will never know of kissing, boobs, love, sex..? What you don't see, you don't know?

All humans have done
what they have to do
at the right age and time
irrespective of their geographic location
and across centuries! Should I really be bringing up the Kamasutra point here?

Talk about things- make people learn and understand - banning will not achieve whatever these censorship people are trying to achieve (I have no idea). Ban this/Censor that, someone will find a way to it.  Please focus on banning stupid speeches by some daft Indian politicians or discrimination on the basis of one's skin colour? This video by Hollyshit - a Youtube channel-sums up what we should really be banning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-dChNC-ob4


*Sigh* To watch or not to watch, that is the question. Watching each scene with the FEAR OF MISSING OUT. #FOMO.