Gay film Ka Bodyscapes denied certification in India,filmmaker calls CBFC feudal, homophobic and very much misogynistic

New York July 29:Jayan Cherian ,New York based filmmaker is indignant and enraged to find that his movie on a gay theme,’Ka Bodyscapes’ ,has been denied certification in India by the CBFC for “being sensitive gay scenes, use of derogatory words against women and vulgar dialogues”.

In a letter sent to the makers on Monday, the film ,has been rejected for “ridiculing, insulting and humiliating Hindu Religion” and for offending “human sensibilities”. The movie tells the story of a painter named Haris, Vishnu, his lover and rural kabaddi player, and their friend Sia, a woman from a conservative Muslim family in Kerala questioning patriarchal norms.

In an interview to The News Minute, the 50-year-old filmmaker called the CBFC “feudal, homophobic and very much misogynistic”.

In the interview, Cherian, who lives in New York, has said “The film talks about a range of issues; from taboo around menstruation to same sex love. It is about a group of people using their bodies as tools for political resistance.”

The film has been making its way through the festival circuit, having screened at the BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival in March earlier this year. “We made the film to show it in Kerala, in India,” he told TNM.

“It is being displayed in festivals across the world, but we cannot release it in our own country.”

Several activists including Jijo Kuriakose of Queerala and author and sex worker Nalini Jameela have worked in the movie- some in front of the camera, some behind it.

The film has been screened at film festivals around the world including in the BFI Flare London LGBT Film Festival 2016.

For Cherian, who has made a number of experimental documentaries and narrative shorts before, it is the second time in a row that the Censor Board has caused trouble.

His debut feature, Papilio Buddha, which focused on discrimination against Dalits, had gone through the same rigmarole.

After the Revising Committee issued 56 cuts in the film, the makers took the film to the Film Certificate Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), a statutory body that is often thought to be more progressive than the CBFC itself.

However, while the FCAT was ready to pass the film relatively unscathed, there was a strange request: the body wanted quotes by noted Dalit figure, politician, and social reformer B.R. Ambedkar to be muted in the film. “In a democratic country, asking a film maker to delete a quote, that too of the Father of the Constitution, from his work of art is ridiculous,” Cherian was quoted as saying.

When the trailer of “Ka Bodyscapes” was first released, Jayan received several threats and hate messages from Hindutva activists.

While acknowledging that society was homophobic, he says it wasn’t always so. “Many of our gods are half male and half female.

Sexuality in earlier times was never a crime at all. What kind of morality are we talking about? Our sense of morality is very Victorian and Christian-centric.

We are conservative and prudish. But Indian tradition or culture is anything but homophobic,” he explains.

Though the fate of his film’s release in India is still uncertain, Jayan says he won’t go down without a fight. “This is a classic case of muting political dissent. We are not a big production company.