Bombay HC Lifts ban on Pakistani artists – salutes transformative power of art and culture
Bombay HC Lifts ban on Pakistani artists – salutes transformative power of art and culture
On Wednesday, 25 October, 2023, when the Bombay High Court lifted the ban on Pakistani artists performing in India
Fans burst into instant song, and, if limbs permit, a glorious burlesque. The Court was unequivocal in its dismissal when it articulated that one need to understand that in order to be a patriot, one need not be inimical to those from abroad particularly, from the neighbouring country.
While not one to validate the dictums of an institution, this is a recognition of the noxious discourse of the interplay of arts and politics, where an awry tide from one domain courses through the other, upturning decades of cultural amelioration like a house of cards in the face of a fickle gale.
The court further added that a person good at heart would welcome any activity which promotes peace, harmony, and tranquillity within the country and across the border.
It is a welcome relief that art and its purveyors have the most limber shoulders in showbiz even as some would say that being an ideational acrobat is showbiz…baby, because no other occupation, maybe apart a sawbones, is so burdened with the sheer need of a purpose.
Long gone are the days when art could exist for art’s sake, in the shadow of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s refrain that her lover must adore her, claim his pulsating heart for her, on the anvil and for the sake of love only.
Saddled with an ambitious teleological vision, cinema becomes both entertainer and sage, simultaneous mime and orator, an evanescent touchstone that is fed by and feeds into the public consciousness of a people.
News Edit K.V.Raman
