The Central Board of Film Certification has banned a Malayalam film directed by a US-based director, Jayan Cheriyan, from screening as it allegedly portrayed Mahatma Gandhi in a bad light.
Cheriyan told DC from the US that his film was a “pro-dalit movie inspired by real-life events and characters” from the contemporary Kerala society.”
The board, while refusing certificate to the film, Papilio Buddha, stated that it could “not be certified in its present form even with excisions (and) cuts.
”In a written statement to the film’s producer, Prakash Bare, the board observed that the film contained visuals and dialogues such as garlanding an effigy of Gandhi with chappals and then burning the effigy; referring to Gandhi as one with homosexual inclinations, and one who cheated dalits, the harijans.
The board said the film contained visuals of extreme violence against a woman including disrobing and gang rape.
Besides, there were “scenes of extreme police torture of people under custody; and also torture of a woman by police causing bleeding and miscarriage.
” Cheriyan’s documentaries have been screened at several international film festivals. He called the ban “an autocratic act.”