Docu on geocentric man called ‘anti-scientific’, denied nod

KOLKATA : A documentary about a man who has been plastering Kolkata’s walls since the 1970s with his theory that the “Sun revolves around the Earth once in 365 days” has run into an unexpected hurdle. The Central Board of Film Certification (

CBFC

) has withheld permission for the film’s release, reportedly on the ground that it is “anti-scientific”.

‘The Geocentric Man’, a 40-minute documentary directed by Saumya Sengupta, is about selfproclaimed scientist

Kartick Chandra Paul

. It even carries a disclaimer that the movie isn’t an endorsement of what Paul has been claiming.

“Anti-scientific” may be the reason cited by CBFC insiders, but the reason furnished to the filmmakers has left them scratching their heads. The board viewed the documentary on January 11. On Tuesday, when TOI spoke to Kolkata CBFC’s regional officer Samrat Bandopadhyay, he said: “The applicant will know the details if he logs into his account.” Producer Amit Kumar Ganguly, however, has found no meaning in the substance of this message: “The reason for refusal may please be elaborated and spelling of names in content may please be corrected. Resubmit only after the necessary correction are done.”

CFBC

violating its own guideline, says director
Flummoxed, director Saumya Sengupta and producer Amit Kumar Ganguly went to meet CBFC’s regional officer Samrat Bandopadhyay on Wednesday afternoon. “We waited for an audience with him. He, however, was in a rush to leave for Cuttack. All we could understand was that the documentary has been refused. When we told him that we needed to know the reason for the refusal, he said he couldn’t remember and needed to look into the files. We have no idea what the ‘spelling of names in the content’ refers to. Are we supposed to change the name of the film? But we got no reply and were asked to return again on February 13,” the producer said.

Sengupta and Ganguly pointed out that according to the CBFC website, a certificate is expected within 68 days. “With this new February 13 date, CBFC is violating its own guideline and taking 77 days to let us know what’s gone wrong. There was no regional officer in December and we accepted the fact that the documentary couldn’t be passed on time before we could send it for the National Awards. This inordinate delay is leaving a bitter taste,” Sengupta said.

It was Paul’s personality and his dogged approach that had got the director interested in him as a subject. Sengupta first met Paul at the 2017 Kolkata Book Fair, was intrigued by his story and approached him to make the documentary last

March. The story of how an Army constable posted at UP’s Fatehgarh, who had no formal education beyond Class VIII, could dedicate his life to something so radical had left the director curious. “Sighting the

North Star

at one particular position in the sky got him thinking about the possibility of the Sun revolving around the Earth,” Sengupta said.

The Army job was not Paul’s calling and he returned to his Howrah home in 1979. He subsequently got a job at the state electricity board. “I find his journey fascinating,” the director said. “In between, he had problems with his family and moved out to stay on a pavement on Rashbehari Avenue. After two years on the pavement, keeping people from stealing his goods, he made peace with his family and returned home. Now he stays on the verandah of his Howrah home. The pension he draws keeps his kitchen fire burning, though his day is spent propagating his geocentric concept,” Sengupta added.