And they say we peddle violence

Apicture of a naked prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his genitals. Another of a female soldier, with a cigarette in her mouth, simulating holding a gun and pointing it at a naked man''s genitals.And yet another of a naked man with his back to the wall, being tormented with Americans holding dogs, who look as if they can''t wait to tear him apart.
No, these are not some manufactured images by a filmmaker in his image-manufacturing laboratory. What has chilled the world to the bone is the fact that these images are the outcome of a meticulously performed operation carried out on real people like you and me, and who belong to the factual world. These images jolted the world out of its self-induced stupor and made two things clear. One is that man''s brutality to man is still rampant and systematic in today''s Iraq. Second, that when it comes to human brutality, Bollywood''s wildest imagination cannot hold a candle to the American torture squad''s innovative genius to inflict pain.
Can you imagine we in Bollywood ever shooting a scene with Gulshan Grover all wired up and naked, or a guntoting Aishwariya Rai pointing a muzzle at the crotch of a hapless prisoner? If any one came even half way close to this in a Hindi film, the censors would swoop down for sure on the film and its maker. And the concerned citizens will accuse us of desensitizing the masses and damaging the minds of innocent children.
What is very clear from this is that we, as a people are singularly incapable of dealing with violence in real life and in order to escape from that powerlessness,we direct all our energy to reign and control brutality committed in the virtual world. Is this all that we can do? How long are you going to delude yourself that by censoring images on screen you are going to make the world a better place to live in? Isn''t it ironic that when I show a good man beating a bad man to pulp in order to give the audience a feeling of control and catharsis, I''m given an ‘A''certificate,but when the evil in Iraq is matched by the evil committed by the Americans, the images are flashed on all the newspapers all over the world on all the front pages, without any one raising an eye brow.
Before I rest my case, may I ask what all those alarmists who make such a hue and cry about inconsequential drama are doing now to protect our delicate psyches and those of our children? What''s patently clear from the collective reaction to these pictures the world over, is that reality is far far stronger and impactful than any filmmaker''s imagination. So all the bloody cinematic images put together do not have the power to change human behavior, but Butcher Bush''s boys humiliation of Iraqis in the name of liberation, is certainly sowing the seeds of a human catastrophe of far-reaching consequences.