Increasingly, the cultural terrorists in India are selectively muffling voices that question social ills. In the US several decades ago, Charlie Chaplin was persecuted for his pro-people humour. Today, Deepa Mehta is prevented from shooting Water.Why? Censors approve extreme violence and crude sexuality in popular Hindi cinema but a storyline that threatens the patriarchy gets the third degree. The complexities of censorship are multi-layered, yet, it is reassuring to know that even as filmmakers of conscience despair, they draw renewed strength from the very friction they generate.

We are, in Salman Rushdie’s memorable phrase, ‘handcuffed to history’. But the coloured glass shards of history can willingly rearrange themselves in the kaleidoscope of hindsight – depending on the eye of the beholder – and do a Rashomon. They allow plenty of latitude for several points of view as well as dark mischief.