AMAZING MOVIES WHICH ARE STILL BANNED IN INDIA

kamakshi jain 13-Jul-2016 Image Source

Filmmakers often have been criticized for their films by the Censor Board. Besides asking filmmakers to delete a few scenes from their movies, Censor Board sometimes ban a movie, due to some or the other reason. These films might have some bold scenes, vulgar dialogues or may be highlighting something which our ‘Censor Board’ doesn’t think to be appropriate for the audience. These movies are on sensitive issues which need to be raised, some of them are educational, some bring to light certain very important issues, yet the Censor Board refused to pass them. Check out these movies you must watch which are still banned in the country.

1. Fire

Fire is a 1996 Indian-Canadian romantic drama film written and directed by Deepa Mehta and starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das. It is the first installment of Mehta's Elements trilogy; it is succeeded by Earth (1998) and Water (2005).The film is loosely based on Ismat Chughtai's 1942 story, Lihaaf (The Quilt). It was one of the first mainstream films in India to explicitly show homosexual relations. After its 1998 release in India, certain groups staged several protests, setting off a flurry of public dialogue around issues such as homosexuality and freedom of speech. Fire was passed uncut by India's censor board (the Central Board of Film Certification) in May 1998 with a rating of Adult, the only condition being that the character Sita's name be changed to Nita. The film was first screened on 13 November 1998 and ran to full houses in most metropolitan cities throughout India for almost three weeks.

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2. The Pink Mirror

The Pink Mirror, the Indian release title Gulabi Aaina is an award-winning Indian film drama produced and directed by Sridhar Rangayan. Said to be the first Indian film to comprehensively focus on Indian transsexuals with the entire story revolving around two transsexuals and a gay teenager's attempts to seduce a man - Samir (Rufy Baqal). The film explores the taboo subject of transsexuals in India which is still much misunderstood and ridiculed. In 2003, the Central Board of Film Certification, the Indian Censor Board banned Rangayan's film on Indian transsexuals. The censor board cited that the film was 'vulgar and offensive'. The filmmaker appealed twice again unsuccessfully. The film still remains banned in India, but has screened at numerous festivals all over the world and won awards. The critics have applauded it for its 'sensitive and touching portrayal of marginalized community'.

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3. Paanch

Paanch is an unreleased Indian crime thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava, Vijay Maurya, Joy Fernandes and Tejaswini Kolhapure. The film is "loosely" based on the 1976-77 Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders in Pune. The film never got a theatrical or home-video release. The Central Board of Film Certification objected to the film's violence, the depiction of drug abuse and bad language. After some cuts, the film was cleared in 2001. However, it could not be released as the producer faced some problems. A preview copy of the film was leaked online in 2010.

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4. Black Friday

Black Friday is a 2007 Indian crime film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap based on Black Friday â€“ The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, a book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. The film's creative consultant, Chandramohan Puppala, attempted to recreate those events and the intense feelings that followed them. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Best Film (Golden Leopard) award at the Locarno International Film Festival. The film was so controversial that the Indian Censor Board did not allow it to be released in India for three years and was finally released on 9 February 2007 after Supreme Court of India allowed it following the verdict in the '93 Bombay blast case was delivered by TADA court.

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5. Unfreedom

Unfreedom is a 2014 Indian drama film by Raj Amit Kumar which was released in North America on 29 May 2015. Faiz Ahmad Faiz's poem, "Ye Dagh Dagh Ujala", is the inspiration behind the film. The film stars Victor Banerjee, Adil Hussain. and Preeti Gupta. The story revolves around a Muslim fundamentalist in New York who kidnaps a liberal Muslim scholar with intent to kill, while a closeted lesbian in New Delhi kidnaps her bisexual lover with the intent to love. The resulting torture and violence evokes a brutal struggle of identities against "unfreedom". In India, the film was refused certification by the Examining Committee. A revising committee of the Censor Board proposed cuts to the director, Raj Amit Kumar. He refused and appealed against the Censor Board's demand for cuts to the Indian Government's Information and Broadcasting Appellate Tribunal FCAT. In response to his appeal, the authorities completely banned the film regardless of cuts. The news of the ban gained widespread coverage in the media.