Ranveer Singh shows his butt in Befikre and gets away with it, so why the injustice to James Bond and Ranbir Kapoor, Censor Board?

Befikre was rated U/A by the Censor Board, our supposed equivalent of PG-13 rating of the Hollywood.

If Einstein was alive today even he would have scratched his head if asked to solve about how our Censor Board works. You can understand how Bigg Boss works, you can even deduce how Donald Trump won the US Presidential elections but the working of Pahlaj Nihalani and co. is something no one can really understand. And Befikre is one huge example of how Censor Board’s second name is inconsistency.
Befikre was rated U/A by the Censor Board, our supposed equivalent of PG-13 rating of the Hollywood. U/A actually means “unrestricted public exhibition subject to parental guidance for children below the age of twelve”. Now let me list down the scenes in the movie that parents can find objectionable to their kids watching the same, if they actually brought down their family to watch Befikre (If they do, their experience would make for a rather interesting story than the movie itself).
– Countless kissing and making out scenes
– Both the lead dropping off their clothes at any moment (Vaani takes off her top in the first scene of the movie)
– Reference of  ‘ass’ and  ‘assholes’
However, the biggest ‘offence’ that Befikre committed was that scene where Ranveer Singh show off his butt in a flash. And yet, Censor Board let it go away with a U/A rating.

Now there are two ways to look at it. One, Pahlaj Nihalani has decided to flow with the tide and have loosened himself up. Second, something about YRF scares them to give a A Rating. If we look at the first way and think that our Censor Board has gone liberal, still it’s wrong. Befikre is not a movie any 12 year old or younger kid can watch with his/her parents. It is more suited to the teen and above category.
Speaking of the second way, we need to go back in time and look at how Censor Board had reviewed and rated and snipped at some very popular movies in the past few movies. Let’s start off with Thalaivaa himself.
Earlier this year, when I had gone to review Kabali I was shocked by the gratuitous amount of bloodshed and violence in the movie, and yet the movie got away with a U rating. yes, a U for a film where Rajinikanth plays a gangster who breaks off a man’s hand within the first few minutes of the movie with an iron road. The entire climax was just an orgy of gunshots and bloodbath, and this was a movie that kids can watch safely according to the Censor Board.
In the same year, came The Jungle Book. A family movie, that was more aimed at the kids. However, the Censor Board found the ‘Kaa’ portion very scary so they gave the movie U/A rating. Guess Pahalan Nihalani and co. are scared off a CGI python more than Thalaivaa randomly shooting people’s heads.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Dear Zindagi was rated U/A. And all it had was one peck on the lips between Alia Bhatt and Ali Zafar that the Censors found objectionable enough to not give a U rating. Last year, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone’s Tamasha had to be ‘toned’ down because Censors found it too hot. Ranbir never seems to be Censor Board’s favourite since his nude scene was deleted from Saawariya, but Ranveer just got away with doing the same. Why, even the one and only kissing scene in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was trimmed as well.
Even James Bond was turned into Alok Nath, as kissing and lovemaking scenes from SPECTRE were truncated last year, so that kids can watch 007 kill villains and destroy buildings (because violence is okay, kissing not so). Thank God for YouTube that we get the un’Censored’ scenes..
When Pahlaj Nihalani was asked by senior journalist, Subhash K Jha about how Befikre got away with the kisses, while Tamasha and ADHM had to go under the scissors, he replied, “Firstly, there is a difference in the intention and purpose of the kisses in Befikre and the ones you mention in the earlier films. Those earlier kisses were very intimate and sexual in nature, and also shot in lingering close-ups. In Befikre the kisses are used as signs of affection warmth and kinship. And they are not shot in close-ups. That makes a helluva difference in terms of impact.”
Sorry, did that make any kind of sense to you? Having seen the movie (actually, not required… you can see it in the above trailer itself), many of Befikre’s kissing scenes were sexual in nature and some of them were even in close-ups too. And then there is the case of Ranveer’s butt. So please tell me what kind of difference does that impact make, Mr Nihalani? But then this is the same man, who called A Flying Jatt as the best movie made ever… so there’s that!
Also Nihalani further justifies his stand saying, “See, in India kissing in public is still taboo. But in Paris it’s openly done.It’s an accepted form of affection not just for couples in love but also a form greeting between two friends when they meet. We can’t apply our own cultural rules to people outside.” So even the kiss in ADHM was set outside India, so why did you want to shorten that? The scenes may be set in abroad, but the audience are still in India. So if you kiss abroad you are forgiven, but you kiss in India God will send you to hell?
It’s nuggets of reasoning like this that always want me to do this…

Jai Ho, Censor Board!