Political Film On The 1946 Riots Banned

It seems cinema with a strong political subject ,no matter what the political ideology or leaning of its director, is destined to get into the trouble with the censor board.

After the the film small-budget Gujarati film Salagto Sawaal Anamat, allegedly based on Hardik Patel pro-reservation agitation across Gujarat and  the controversial documentary Battle Of Banaras directed by Kamal Swaroop which chronicles Narendra Modi’s candidature for the Lok Sabha from the Varanasi constituency where he fought elections against Arvind Kejriwal, another political film has banned

This time, the film to get the axe is  the Bengali film Danga The Riot , about the terrible communal riots in Kolkata in 1946 which went on relentlessly for four days killing thousands of victims.  Known as the “Great Calcutta Killing” the butchery and bloodshed of those four days, said to be worst communal carnage in India, is captured in Danga The Riot.

The film, directed by Milan Bhowmik, chronicles the savagery and also lays the blame squarely on one political party for the violence that erupted in 1946.

Says a source clued in to the development, “Bhowmik’s film was banned by the censor board in Kolkata. The makers then took the film to Mumbai .There too the film has been denied certification.”

Apparently the film shows stalwart politicians from the pre-Partition era in an unflattering light.

According to sources films such as Battle Of Banaras, Salagto Sawaal Anamat , Dilli 1984 . Kaum De Heere  and Danga The Riot which are on politically sensitive issues, won’t be cleared unless the negative references to revered political personalities and institutions are removed.