So what, one may ask — what is so wrong with putting on a bit of a risqué act for commercial purposes?  

Nothing really. Certainly nothing to warrant a police complaint or harassment of any individual. And certainly nothing to clog up an already overburdened judiciary. And yet, take a look at the cases that make up a substantial part of the stuff that ends up on the scanner of the morality brigade : the Shilpa Shetty-Richard Gere clinch, publicity material for a Pooja Bhatt film, the goings on in the Bigg Brother house, etc. In other words: lascivious posters, a public smooch, a back massage on television etc. etc.  

The right to freedom of expression demands that all these be tolerated and allowed to exist. At the same time one cannot help looking at the list and wondering why it is that so many of the acts and products that run afoul of the moral police and which we as a liberal society end up defending can be described as plain schlock. Is it because our creative minds do not know the difference between cheap sensationalism and the truly experimental? Or have we come to accept puerility as the only possible counter to the puritannical elements in our society?

amrita.shah@expressindia.com