Reports indicate that the ban on Bhobishyoter Bhoot was communicated to theatre owners by police officials orally. Overall, the scenes are impactful but harmless – not unlike the silly skits one might encounter on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’, or Indian YouTube channels like ‘The Viral Fever’. The film lampoons several worthies in the party, who have featured in the headlines for reasons well known to all. The most hard-hitting digs, however, are reserved for the Trinamool Congress. Dutta has mocked political parties and ideologies across the board – from the cow politics of the BJP and the RSS, to the luddite Marxism of the Left Front in Bengal, to radical Islam. While the title of Dutta’s present film puns on his earlier work, I could not spot much similarity between the two, barring the superficial idea of ghosts and spirits playing a central role.īhobishyoter Bhoot is, in fact, a black comedy with political overtones completely absent in the earlier film. Dutta is best known for his debut film Bhooter Bhobishyot (‘The Future of Ghosts’), a comedy that earned great critical and commercial success. Interview: Director Anik Dutta on the Mysterious Fate of ‘Bhobishyoter Bhoot’Īs an invitee to the film’s premiere, and thus one of the handful of people to have seen the film, I can speak with knowledge about its content. In contrast, the reaction from the chief minister of West Bengal has been insouciant (“I will not answer. Many have strongly criticised the ban, including veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee ( who termed it “fascist”). As Dutta told The Wire in an interview, screenings of the film throughout West Bengal were cancelled the day after its premiere, after orders from “higher authorities” in the state. The latest victim in this Groundhog Day-like scenario is a Bengali film directed by Anik Dutta, Bhobishyoter Bhoot (‘Ghosts of the Future’). Meanwhile, options for the producer range from approaching the courts (where victory is likely, but at the expense of delays and high legal costs) to issuing a public apology and deleting any offending material (in some ways a better solution, but at the expense of artistic integrity). Social media users offer hashtags of solidarity. The news is reported widely in the media, though outlets sympathetic to the regime downplay it. The ruling regime in a state decides to act as a super-censor and bans the film. A film discussing contentious political issues receives clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), in one if its more benevolent moods.
0 kommentar(er)
