‘SUN SUN SUN Didi tere liye ik rishta aaya hai’ is a famous song by Gulzar in the movie ‘Khoobsurat’. In the song, meant to be playful, the younger sister, played by Rekha, chides her elder sister that she has received a marriage proposal, but the groom stammers, the future mother-in-law has hearing difficulties, and the father-in-law has speech difficulties. One might expect Gulzar not to produce a stereotype of disabled people, but even the sensitive poet failed to acknowledge the dignity and sensibility of disabled people.
From ‘Khoobsurat’ to ‘India’s Got Latent’, India’s art community has shown a remarkable lack of understanding of the human dignity of the disabled. Often, it produces a story of ‘inspiration porn’ in the name of celebrating the disabled, or mocks them, robbing them of respect and dignity. There are some profound attempts to make meaningful art and cinema based on disabled experiences, too, but every time disabled people and their experiences are mocked in artistic expression, it is deeply felt as humiliating.
The recent order by the Supreme Court to comedians Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Nishant Tanwar, and others to put online apologies for their insensitive remarks has again highlighted the inability of India’s art community to engage with the question of disability. It also has some important constitutional lessons for the disabled community.
