Woody Allen is master of the beautiful frame – his New York is the New York non-New Yorkers fantasise about. Watch his films and you will yearn to slip into his perfectly crafted worlds, even if it’s into his pet city’s supposedly-seamy-yet-pretty underbelly in the tragic-comic Manhattan Murder Mystery . So it’s understandable why Allen didn’t want the ungainly ‘smoking is injurious’ notice slapped on to scenes where a graceful Cate Blanchett is puffing away. An unhappy result is that Blue Jasmine , the new film in question, will not release in India.

Any other filmmaker, a lesser one maybe, would have protested loudly about the health warnings, but would have, eventually, relented. Any other filmmaker would have cut out altogether the two scenes that featured cigarettes. After all, India is a movie market to be reckoned with, with Hollywood offerings raking in close to 10 per cent of box office collections. So even a Blue Jasmine , which, like other Allen creations, will be shown in urban multiplexes for perhaps no more than a couple of weeks, has quite a bit to lose. Allen’s decision to pull the film from India speaks of a commitment to artistic freedom and to art’s aesthetics. It requires a certain courage, arrogance even, which has to be appreciated.

And his decision to not comply, however insignificant it may seem to many of us in India, is important in times when art is held hostage by popular opinion and political ambition. Because, unfortunately, life is not perfect the way Allen’s frames are.

Do you like Woody Allen’s comedies? How do you plan to watch Blue Jasmine ? Write back at bloncampus@thehindu.co.in.

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