Set a countdown timer, another re-imagined slice from an epic is precisely three days away from hitting the bookshelves across the nation. In most of the places, Amish Tripathi’s second in the mythological Ram Chandra fiction series, Sita: Warrior of Mithila, has occupied debates, discussions, anticipation and definitely landed pre-release orders. Enough to whet the appetite of Amish readers, a news portal runs excerpts from the first few pages till the release date. Down south, the present is caught in the past, in the 1980s to say. All erupted from the screen adaptation of the highly regarded novel by Jnanpith laureate M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Randamoozham, getting christened Mahabharata. Just a few days ago that Hindu Aikya Vedi supremo, K.P.Sasikala, demanded renaming the movie to Randamoozham. In the bigger picture, the Rs 1000-crore mammoth project is the latest update. In the name of a title, creative freedom had borne the brunt, during recent times in particular.
Nailing the coveted Hivos Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Sexy Durga set a celebratory mood for Malayalam cinema. The movie, taken to 18 international film fests and doing another festival round in Russia, Armenia and Edinburgh in June, is not properly recognised in its home state. Things were not so rosy neither for the movie nor the director. Sexy Durga was not screened anywhere here or being taken to the Censor Board. Sanal calls such a hue and cry over a film’s name purely illogical. “People were a little bit apprehensive as the name mentioned Durga as sexy. They connected it to the goddess’s name. Then perceived it ominous if a god’s name is referred so, or this single movie may shatter the grounds of tradition and faith,” he says.
Still from Sexy Durga
Cinematographer-turned director Ramachandra Babu was taken by surprise when a section of people calling themselves Dinkoists raised voice against his debut directorial Professor Dinkan. They claimed the movie name puts their ‘god’ Dinkan under bad light. The mode of protest was a march towards the restaurant run by lead actor Dileep. The director says the movie has no connection with Dinkoism or even the popular comic character of kids, Dinkan. “These are controversies created to be controversial. In our country, many people bear the name of gods. Don’t teleserials produce fictionalised and non-existing takes of epics? Heard anyone shout out in protest? Dubbed versions of several north Indian productions are aired in our television channels. Ramayana has got another version, Keemayana, in Tamil Nadu portraying Ravana as a hero. Each is a different opinion and interpretation,” Babu reasons.
Sanal’s view also falls in the same line. “Anything about cinema gets noticed. The speaker suddenly comes under the spotlight in a sheer publicity stunt. The context has just got repeated. I wonder where our society is heading to,” observes Sanal. Film director, and chairman of Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC), Lenin Rajendran, calls Mahabharata an enriched creative work. “Does anyone treat Mahabharata as a holy book? If does, they should be ready to accept and imbibe the several plots and subplots that exist within. It speaks about creation, treachery, romance and more. The good and bad in every character are clearly sketched. This acceptance of a person’s being makes Hindu religion different from others. It is such a work that interprets human mind with psychological precision. Also it is accepted that not just one writer, but many authors are involved in its completion. It is no wrong attributing the name for a film, that follows one such plot,” he says.
Sasikala explains she wanted to drive home the point of respecting the author of Mahabharata. “The sage who wrote Mahabharata is a writer, not a fact to be neglected. MT’s works had movie versions earlier and they were all named the same as the literary works. How are characters from one of those works put in a different story share a common title? Why this movie alone is given the name of the epic when it is an imagined version of the author. We are not against the novel. Could Da Vinci Code be called the Bible?” she asks. If the movie gets released as Mahabharatha, Sasikala asserts, she would seek the legal route. Director of the movie V.A. Shrikumar Menon had not responded to the controversy so far.
