CBFC wants ‘Musalman’ muted in film

KOLKATA: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has issued a show-cause notice to the director of Bengali film ‘Chirodiner Ek Onnyo Premer Galpo’, asking him to mute the word ‘Musalman’ that occurs at four places. Ranjan Chowdhury’s film is based on the relationship between a Hindu and a Muslim.
The notice asks the film-maker to carry out eight excisions/modifications for it to get the U/A certificate, of which four are for the word ‘Musalman’.The CBFC directive says the word has to be “muted in the duration mentioned” as it violates the guideline on “visuals or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other groups”.
The director, who had gone to meet regional CBFC officer Samrat Banerjee, is flummoxed. “Removing this word from these sequences will take away the twist from my tale. I will not accept it and apply to the revising committee,” Chowdhury said, equally miffed at also being asked to delete an entire song from his film.
Banerjee, however, refused to entertain any calls on this issue from TOI.