Chaplin’s beauty and the beach

All that Charlie Chaplin needed to make comedy was “a pretty girl, a policeman and a park”. In India, he got a filmmaker, the moral police and a beach. And what a comedy it’s been.
Hemant Hedge, a film director who has delivered Ooh La La! and Dhad Dhad (which were below average performers at the Box Office), wanted to shoot a dance number using a 67-foot Chaplin statue as the backdrop for his forthcoming venture, House Full. As a symbol of his magnanimity, he wanted to leave the statue intact to draw tourists. That his name and that of his movie would have become immortalized with the permanent structure is an issue that Hegde would never have even thought of.
A couple of issues need to be explored here. First and foremost, a 67-foot Chaplin statue on the beach? Agreed, Chaplin was a great artist – I still get the goosebumps when I watch The Kid. But would my admiration for the man hold when I see a statue as tall as a five-storey building on the beach? Doubtful. When you picture a beach, you see the sea, the sun, the palm trees and lots of white sand. Not statues. Hope it stays that way.
And then there is this issue of the Coastal Regulatory Zone norms. Hegde had only got oral permission for installing the statue at Otthinene near Baindur (Udupi). As per CRZ norms, no permanent structure can come up within 500 metres of the seashore. Hegde’s tribute to the legendary artist was to come up 300 metres from the seashore.
Hegde and his next, House Full, got a lot of free press before he decided to install the statue to Innovative Film City at Bidadi, near Bangalore, thanks to the comedians who opposed it saying Chaplin was a Christian. A lot of artists jumped into the debate and a lot of noise was made. Ramachandra Gowda’s remarks about modern art were recalled as was Chaplin’s agnosticism. In the end, the “moral police” had their way even though they did not realize that by bringing in the useless issue of Chaplin’s “religion”, they managed to preserve the beauty of the beach.
Frankly, Karnataka is going through a churning that it can do without. The attacks in Mangalore and the moral policing in Bangalore have brought the state into global focus once again. And on days the moral police catches its breath, it is the police that manages to raise eyebrows. Police commissioner Shankar Bidari’s plans to recruit 10,000 eyes and ears for the city met with a poor response. Now he wants Bangaloreans to defend themselves with whatever weapon they have when attacked.
If the onus of ensuring safety is increasingly being transferred to the individual, it is little wonder then that individuals are rising to “uphold cultural values” and are getting away with it.
It’s turning out to be a comedy even Chaplin would have never dreamt of. Only, it’s not funny anymore.