The controversial Malayalam movie ‘Empuran’ has undergone 24 cuts, contradicting the earlier declaration of 17. The ‘architects’ of the movie approached the Censor Board, demanding changes in certain scenes and dialogues, following stiff opposition from the general public. As a result, re-edits were made at 24 points, with a total of 2.08 minutes of visuals now removed. The villain’s name has been changed from Bajrangi to Baldev, and scenes depicting sexual assault against women have been eliminated.
Additionally, a scene showing a woman’s head being banged against a wall has been removed, as well as a dialogue referring to the colour of the national flag. The original card indicating the period of the story has been replaced with a more ambiguous reference—“a few years ago.”
Further changes include alterations to the scene of Mohseen’s killing and the removal of traffic sequences involving tractors and other vehicles in front of religious centres. Several characters, including Baldev and Peetambaran, have been edited out. The NIA name-board on a car has been removed, along with any mention of ‘NIA’ in the dialogue. TV news visuals have also been cut, and dialogues featuring conversations between Masood and Sayed Masood, as well as between Baldev and Munna, have been omitted.
Union Minister Suresh Gopi had asked to remove his name from the ‘thanks card’, and it has been complied with. The card of saying thanks to Jyothis Mohan IRS has been removed. The changed version of the movie was scheduled to be screened in the movie houses on April 2.
Minister Suresh Gopi said that the new changes have been implemented by the very architects of the movie.
John Ditto: Prithviraj Has a Habit of Distorting History
Famous filmmaker John Ditto has stated in his Facebook post that when he approached Prithviraj, the director of “Empuran”, in 2005, with a script about the ‘Rajan’ episode of the Emergency days (1975–1977), he asked to change the script, then only he would act.
Rajan, an engineering college student, was killed in police torture, and there is no clue of his mortal remains until this moment. Rajan was obviously the hero of the movie. The role offered to Prithvi was of a Maoist leader. Then, he wanted the director to rewrite the script by making the Maoist the hero of the movie. John Ditto refused to do it, and he did cast another actor for the role.
John Ditto says that Prithviraj had been carrying the habit of distorting history since long sans doing an iota of justice to it (history). Ditto says that if he had compromised according to the whims and fancies of Prithviraj, he could have made a blockbuster movie. But, he (Ditto) preferred to do justice to history. Ditto says that Prithviraj has been maintaining a negative stand towards history. Ditto said this in the wake of the widespread criticism against “Empuran” since it does not respect history at all.
CPM’s Double Standards on Freedom of Expression Exposed
Meanwhile, another famous filmmaker, Moidu Thazhathu, ridicules the double standard of CPM with respect to freedom of expression. Now, in the current scenario, “TP 51”, directed by Moidu, is being discussed. The theme of the film was the life of T P Chandrasekharan, a senior CPM comrade in Kozhikode district, who was brutally murdered by CPM goons on May 4, 2012. The CPM men interrupted the screening of the movie. The director faced a life threat. Even though the Film Exhibitors Association had given assurance of screening the movie in 69 theatres in the state, they went back on their words in view of the bomb threat received by the theatre owners.
Moidu reminisced about the film shooting at Mudakkozhimula, where the Chandrasekharan murder case accused, Kodi Suni, had lived an underground life to escape the arrest. He says people came in about 20 cars without number plates, threatened Moidu, and he had to stop shooting. Moidu says that the goons ignored the presence of the police even though the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) was ruling the state, and Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala was the home minister. As a result, 28 artists withdrew from the project. Then, crew members like cameramen, technicians, and makeup men withdrew too.
Moidu says that when he was facing threats, Moidu lived in an apartment in Kannur, and he was evicted from there, thanks to the intervention of the CPM’s A N Shamseer, the current Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. Still, he does not have the liberty to make any feature film or ad movie – “The maker of ‘TP 51’ film will not be allowed to stand in the field.”
Moidu says that those who talk about the freedom of expression of “Empuran” flashed a bomb scare against his movie. He said he would once bring his “TP 51”, the movie which depicts Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as an accused, before the viewers and the general public. He is confident of it.
A few years back, Moidu Thazhathu had left Congress as the party allegedly treated him as a ‘use and throw’ article. His “TP 51” was allegedly screened by the Congress for election campaigns on the party channel, but he was not even given the revenue generated by the advertisement.
The revelation of Moidu Thazhathu has pushed both the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) to the wall.
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