Malayalam film on JNU protests denied release by Censor Board

Malayalam film ‘Varthamanam’, which narrates the journey of a woman from Kerala who goes to Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for her research studies, has been denied permission for screening by the Censor Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) regional office in Thiruvananthpuram, PTI reported. 

The movie, which features the students’ protests held early this year in JNU, has been directed by renowned filmmaker Sidhartha Siva. Award- winning actor Parvathy Thiruvoth essays the lead role. 

“The CBFC officials here just informed us that the film has to be submitted to the revising committee. We still do not know why the movie is denied the certification,” Aryadan Shoukath, the film’s producer and scriptwriter, told PTI. He added that they  would submit the movie to the revising committee of the Censor Board in Mumbai for certification this week.

Shoukath also suspects that the nod for screening was denied on political grounds.  A recent tweet of the state vice president of SC Morcha of the BJP, who is also a Censor Board member, is a case in point, according to him.

“Adv V Sandeep Kumar, a censor board member, recently tweeted that the permission was denied as Aryadan Shoukath was its scriptwriter and producer. Nowadays Censor Board has several political appointees who have no basic knowledge of cinema,” he said, as per PTI reports.

In his tweet, which was later removed, Sandeep Kumar had said that he was opposed to ‘giving nod’ for the movie, due to its theme of ‘persecution of Muslims and Dalits in the JNU agitation’.

“As a member of the Censor Board, I saw the movie Varthamanam. The theme was the persecution of Muslims and Dalits in the JNU agitation. I opposed it. Because Arydan Shoukath was its scriptwriter and producer. Of course, the theme of the film was anti-national,” the tweet read, as per PTI reports.

“We are still living in India which is a democratic, secular and socialist country. Is it based on the clan and race of the script-writer that a film is given a nod for screening? The undeclared emergency situation in the cultural sector cannot be accepted,” Shoukath wrote in a post on Facebook.

Violent clashes broke out at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in January this year when masked men armed with sticks and rods attacked students and teachers protesting the administration’s increase in fees.