The certification process of Jayan Cherian’s second feature film, KaBodyscapes, has marked its anniversary of sorts with a Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) team led by its chairman Pahlaj Nihalani watching yet another screening of the film at the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) preview theatre at Worli in Mumbai on Friday.
The 10-member ‘review committee’ watched the film primarily to comply with Kerala High Court’s ruling in December last. A division bench had asked the CBFC to clear the film for public viewing, with excisions and bleep-outs, if necessary. Mr. Cherian had originally submitted the film for the certification process in March last, but was forced to move the court after the body refused to award certification, effectively banning the film.
In an order in September, the Kerala High Court asked the body to clear the film in a month, but the body went in appeal after expiry of the stipulated time and a division bench asked it to review the film again in three months.
“This was the third screening organised for the CBFC and it’s a rip-off each time, with no relief in sight,” rued Mr. Cherian in a telephone conversation with The Hindu . The New York-based producer-filmmaker had to travel to Mumbai and make separate payments of fees to the CBFC and NFDC for the screening. “I had to bear the cost of their snacking, too, only to be told by the chairman at the end that the body would not certify the movie. He would not have any objection to the homosexual content of the film nor the nudity portrayed, but would still not clear it. That’s strange,” Mr. Cherian said.
The body had last year taken strong objection to what it described as the film’s ridiculous portrayal of Hindu gods and women. But the film won the appreciation of spectators for its sensitive portrayal of a homosexual love story in the backdrop of the contemporary struggles for social and gender justice witnessed by Kerala when it was screened, after the court’s intervention, at the International Film Festival of Kerala last year.
“The CBFC is being used as a tool of exclusion and the chairman today asked me to go back to court. They are just dragging it on and I’ve already spent so much money, adequate to make another independent film, for the unsuccessful censoring process. I’m okay to make cuts or blur scenes if they so wish, but they are just refusing to certify. A woman member of the review committee told me after watching the film that she being a Brahmin knew better that its portrayal of Hinduism was wrong. Independent filmmaking is impossible in India with the likes of Nihalani chairing the CBFC,” lamented Mr. Cherian.
