KOLKATA: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) will not allow a disparaging reference to “Uttar Pradesh” in a Bengali comedy starring Trinamool Congress MP Dev as it has found the usage to be against the interests of “national integrity”.
The CBFC sent a show-cause notice on Wednesday to Aniket Chattopadhyay’s “Hoichoi Unlimited”, recommending that it mute the words “Uttar Pradesh”, months after asking for muting “Gujarat” in an
Amartya Sen documentary by director Suman Ghosh. The makers of “HU” have followed in Ghosh’s footsteps, accepting the cut, but the director is happy that many other “politically charged words” used in not-so-flattering context — like “mitron”, “mann ki baat” and “achche din” — have escaped the scissors.
The “Uttar Pradesh” dialogue plays out in travel agent Rajatava Dutta’s office. Hinting at the good time that four men may have with their four female partners on a trip abroad, Dutta says: “Apnara char jon purush aar char jon mahila, all below 30. Jome khir (You are four men and four men, all below 30. Great fun)!”
Dev’s character immediately asks Dutta whether he is a moral police. Dutta replies: “Dhur mashai. Se toh Uttar Pradesh e.… Apnar babar taka. Apni phurti korben taate amar ki tomar ki? (Come on, that happens in Uttar Pradesh.… It’s your dad’s money. Why should how you spend it matter to me)?”
The CBFC has sought cover under the Cinematograph Act of 1952 to explain its stand. Section 2 (xiv) of the CBFC guidelines bans “visuals or words, which promote communal, obscurantist, anti-scientific and anti-national attitude”. “No film is allowed to tarnish my state’s image even in the garb of humour. Why equate Uttar Pradesh with moral policing when we all know that moral policing happens even with rape survivors in Bengal?” said CBFC Kolkata advisory panel member Partha Sarathi Chowdhury.
Chowdhury added: “We would have reacted in the same way if a dialogue had tarnished Bengal’s image. We can’t allow any move against national integrity. That’s anti-national and violates CBFC guidelines.”
“We understand humour. We have only asked words to be muted when the CBFC guideline was violated,” he said.
Dev, also the film’s producer, said: “Our intention was not to hurt anyone. Muting those two words won’t impact my film. I am happy to get the U certificate and go for a Puja release.”
But the director is not happy. “The production house accepted the cut before I could protest,” Chattopadhyay said.
He is, however, pleasantly surprised that the CBFC made no recommendations against some other “loaded” words. Dutta begins a speech saying “Romans and Countrymen” but, when Saswata Chatterjee asks him to speak in Bengali, he says: “Mitron...”.
Kharaj Mukherjee, in another aside, says: “He is a ‘Gujarati Bengali.’ ” There are sarcastic references to “man ki baat” and “achchhe din” as well.
