There is this debate raging in the news channels about banning smoking on screen. A lot of film makers are being shown protesting against it. Mahesh Bhatt wants to show his grand mother smoking a beedi in a film on her, I believe its hypothetical and do not know if he actually meant it, and asks what right does anybody have to stop him from doing so. Shyam Benegal doubts if the thing is practicable at all with the media invading our homes like never before & a multitude of channels showing a million movies already in place with the characters smoking in them.
I was reminded of this thing I read in a 7th standard English text book. It was a short story by Oscar Wilde called "The model millionaire". Without going too much into the plot of the story, here is what the painter Trevor, a not so important character in the story, tells his friend, the protagonist:
'An artist's heart is his head,' replied Trevor; 'and besides, our business is to realise the world as we see it, not to reform it as we know it.
And that I think is rather strong protest.
