Much Ado About Padmavati

Mahesh Vijapurkar

Two decades ago, Fire, a movie with a lesbian relationship as its central theme – first such in India’s cinematic narration – ran into trouble when right-wingers demanded it not be screened. In protest against the producer and the actors, the sets of the next production, Water, was destroyed. Politicians backed such vandalism for they found the film to be ‘against Indian culture’.

Now, this anger is being repeated, with the yet-to-be- certified movie, Padmavati, with the characteristic vehemence so usual by now for these mob behaviour: refusal to even realise that if there was a Padmavati, she was not part of validated history but a folklore, one not to be mistaken for the other. Producers have been forced to take a backseat.

The misguided bigots have aired their misplaced views without even seeing the film. They have in public and on TV threatened to cut off an actor’s nose and put a bounty on its producer’s head, doubling it to Rs 10 crore. The State, where it was shot, and where protests erupted, has mindlessly asked the I&B ministry disallow its release without necessary cuts.

There’s a marked intolerance against story-telling and cinematic freedom for artistic as well as the basic freedom of expression. A documentary, An Insignificant Man, on Arvind Kejriwal, cleared by Central Board for Film Certification was sought to be curbed by a petitioner in the Supreme Court. That the court upheld the right to freedom of speech has not cooled the ardour of the anti-Padmavati mobs.

This marked intolerance has come in a huge wave within about a fortnight. The I&B ministry, without a single line of explanation, dropped two movies, Nude and S. Durga, in Marathi, and Malayalam respectively, from the International Film Festival of India in Goa. The Centre has chosen not to utter a word of explanation. Both the films were certified for release by the CBFC.

Such certification does not seem to count with the I&B ministry. Nor, their clearance by a jury appointed by the same ministry. That a spate of resignations from the jury followed did not prick the ministry’s conscience despite loud protest at the arbitrary decisions, as if the institutions and panels set up by it are irrelevant. This comes across clearly in the letter from Vasundhara Raje to Smriti Irani to not clear Padmavati without cuts.

This amounts to an attempt by the State to pre-empt any independent decisions of the CBFC which has a due process with an appellate forum for the nay-sayers. The non-explanation for dropping of Nude and S. Durga is a sure sign of this authoritarian attitude. The films which have acquired discerning international acclaim cannot be kicked about like this without stating any reasons.

Nude is not a salacious or vulgarly exploitative of women but a narrative of the nude models – who by the way, are getting rarer by the day – who play a stellar role in the world of Art. It is made by a former student of JJ School of Art who is now an award-winning movie maker and quite sensitive one at that – Ravi Jadhav.S. Durga’s makers have asked for answers for being dropped from IFFI in Kerala High Court.

No one outside of the production teams have seen Padmavati and some media personnel have had a select screening. And they think it is not a candidate for the verbal assaults, demonstrations, placing of bounties on heads and noses. The producers obviously wanted the media to know the contents, probably because media have been providing time and space for the agitators rather indiscriminately, fueling the fire.

CBFC has looked askance at this and has said so, but when beleaguered with assaults from all sides, with states like Rajasthan and UP siding with the protestors who do not yet have a basis for they haven’t seen the movie, and the Centre remaining silent for whatever reason, the producers are desperate. Had they felt that the State was protective of their rights, they may not have taken sides.

None of what has transpired so far – and who knows what’s ahead, including blackmail before films are ‘allowed’ for release after a protest?– is healthy to democratice society if we are democratic. There had been a sting on India Today TV about how the KarniSena being willing to agree to token protest to help provide publicity to a movie and then provide protection for a month for a consideration but all media have ignored it.