NCPCR Demands Bombay Begums Be Banned

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR) has  asked  Netflix to  stop streaming Alankrita  Shrivastava’s stunningly layered  Bombay Begums.Apparently two Twitter handles  condemning  scenes related to  the film’s youngest  protagonist(Aadhya Anand) have come under the NCPCR’s scanner.

“We have sought stopping the streaming of Bombay Begums over the inappropriate portrayal of children in the series,’’ NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo is quoted  as saying.

Netflix has  been given 24 hours  from the time  of  the notice to remove Bombay Begums from  its repertoire.

While no one  from  Netflix was willing to comment on this not-unexpected  development(somebody  has to object  to  something  or the other on the streaming  platform) an actor from  the  series told me, “The ‘inappropriate  portrayal  of children’ is such a nebulous  term. Is the  Commission aware  of what  goes  on at the rave parties that  teenagers  regularly attend? In order  to begin to solve the  problems  that plague  our society we must first address those problems. And to address those problems  we  must first   show them on screen.Right? No point in pretending they  don’t exist.”

In the series’ defence I must add that nowhere does  it express any  approval of kids  taking drugs  at  parties. But then  the NCPCR has  not seen  the ostensibly offending scenes, right? They  are acting on  the basis  of  what they read on Twitter. And we  all know  how reliable  information on  the social media tends  to be.