Mumbai: Operation Majnoo, 2005: The Meerut Police swooped on lovers in a park and beat them, and along with the police were cameramen of different news channels who were there because they were promised an exclusive story.
Inspired by the many sting operations and exclusives that the media world is full off, documentary filmmaker Paromita Vohra has made a film Morality TV Aur Loving Jehad, Ek Manohar Kahani, which looks at how the media today has now taken on the role of moral police.
"When I watched the Shakti Kapur expose, I realised something important. I saw that there was a shift in the way news was being said and then when Operation Majnoo happened, I was shocked. It was symbolic of something that is rotting in society," says she.
Hindi pulp fiction forms an important part of her documentary's narrative.
"Manohar Kahaani is pulp fiction and is moralistic. The language of our news channels in Hindi and English is increasingly moralistic. Morality TV and the loving jehad are linked together. There is a lot of anxiety in young people. There is a lot of moral policing and media is increasingly playing the role of a moral police," says she.
Paromita will take the film on the festival circuit and also hopes her film wiill be shown in media schools across the country.
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