The director of the Malayalam film Kathakali on Tuesday approached the Kerala High Court against the demand of three cuts by the Centre Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for issuing certification for the film. In his petition, Saijo Kannanaikkal, director and producer of the film, said that CBFC wanted him to delete three scenes in the film.
In fact, he had already deleted objectionable words from one scene. The two other scenes, which the board wanted to remove, related to nudity. It was a non-sexual nudity and was justified as being part of the story.
A washerman, the principal character in the film, appears in the clothes of someone else for the purpose of impressing a girl. The master washerman, on detecting the foul play, unclothes him with a good thrash. To make that scene perfect, a little nudity was necessary, if partial visibility of a buttock was nudity.
Is this vulgar?
In the end, the main character, in total dejection and despair, removes his Kathakali attire along with his inner clothes and crosses the river and disappears into the wilderness. The scene, as the culmination of the film conveys many things, which by any stretch of imagination cannot be deemed vulgar or prurient.
In fact, what the board took objection to was male nudity. Though the objectionable audio was deleted, the CBFC officer was insisting on full compliance with the required modifications.
The delay in getting the film cleared was causing great loss and hardship to the petitioner.
The guidelines for certification of film for public screening obliged the CBFC to ensure that human sensibility was not offended by vulgarity, obscenity .This could not be attributed to the petitioner’s film. The petitioner contended that he has not violated any of the guidelines of the board. Nor he had offended any human sensibilities. The attitude of the board amounted to denying him the constitutional right of freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution.
