KOCHI: The regional office of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused to issue a censor certificate to a Malayalam documentary based on the atrocities committed by police on those arrested during Emergency, declared by prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. The film 21 Months of Hell, directed by Yadu Vijayakrishnan, uses real life accounts of surviving victims of the torture, and also features re-enactments of the torture methods. The 78-minute documentary deals with the alleged methods of torture employed by the police against detainees during the Emergency.

Though the documentary was viewed by the board members and rejected on Dec.3, the director is yet to get an official communication. Various reasons have been given by the CBFC for denying censor certificate to the film, according to the director Vijayakrishnan, a cinematographer by profession. CBFC members who viewed the film raised objections to disrespect to the national flag and Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi, allegedly shown in the documentary.

The film cannot be considered a documentary as it had ‘fictional’ elements, according to CBFC. The board members also had an issue with the language used, but the director says that there is not even one abusive word in the documentary.

“The scene where the Gandhi reference comes is of a protest where the agitators raise the slogan of ‘Bolo Gandhiji ki Jai’. Policemen arrive on the scene to disperse the protesters, asking them to raise slogans for the Gandhi (Indira Gandhi) who is alive, rather than the one who is dead (Mahatma Gandhi). In this scene, Gandhi is not portrayed negatively, the policeman who says that line is. In the same scene, a national flag falls on the ground from a protester’s hand, when he is beaten up. This is what the board members interpreted as disrespect,” said Vijayakrishnan.