Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 27: The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday pulled up the makers of the film ‘Adipurush’ and also the censor board over the objections raised by the movie-goers accusing the film of “hurting the religious sentiments” of the Hindus.
Seriously questioning the intelligence of the film-maker after the argument of the respondents that a disclaimer had been added in the film, the bench said, “Do the people who put the disclaimer consider the countrymen, and youth, to be brainless? You show Lord Rama, Lord Laxman, Lord Hanuman, Ravana, Lanka and then say it is not Ramayana?”
Pulling up the movie for its dialogues that infuriated many people who accuse it of ‘hurting religious sentiments,’ the court directed co-writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla to be made a party in the case, and issued notice directing him to respond within a week.
The court was hearing a petition demanding a ban on ‘Adipurush” which claims to be a mythological action film based on the Hindu epic Ramayana. “The nature of dialogues in the film is a big issue. Ramayana is a paragon for us. People read Ramcharitmanas before leaving home,” the petition said adding that films shouldn’t touch certain things.
“Agar hum log ispar bhi aankh band kar len kyonki yeh kaha jaata hai ki yeh dharm ke log bade sahishnu (tolerant) hain to kya uska test liya jayega? (If we close our eyes on this issue too, because it is said that the people of this religion are very tolerant, will it be put to test as well?),” the bench remarked.
The Allahabad High Court questioned whether the film certification authority, popularly called the censor board, fulfilled its responsibility. “It’s good that people did not harm the law and order situation after watching the film. Lord Hanuman and Sita have been shown like they are nothing. These things should have been removed from the very beginning. Some scenes seem to be of “A” (adult) category. It’s very difficult to watch such films,” the court observed. Terming it a “very serious matter”, it questioned what the censor board did about it.
On the Deputy Solicitor General informing the court that the “objectionable” dialogues had been removed from the film, the bench asked the Deputy SG to ask the censor board what it has been doing. “That alone won’t work. What will you do with the scenes? Seek instructions, then we will definitely do whatever we want to do… In case the exhibition of the film is stopped, then the people whose feelings have been hurt, will get relief,” the court said.
“We saw it on the news that people went to the theatres and got the film shut down. Be thankful nobody vandalised it,” the court added. Hearing in the case will continue tomorrow.
