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| film Papilio Buddha |
Living in
a time such as ours, you shouldn’t be surprised if tilting your head a certain
way ended up offending someone or some group somewhere longing for attention
and waiting to pounce. Despite all the ongoing debate on freedom of expression, art, books, films and other such creative media has increasingly been attacked
time and again in the name of the liberty taken to “overstep that line”. Many a
controversies have arisen owing to the disputed interpretation of the said
freedom, and one of the most targeted areas in this case has forever been the movie world. In Kerala where every
Mahesh, Suresh and Ramesh veneer their opinions as criticisms, there have been
many occasions where films were beaten and cut to size for freely expressing a view
different from the conventional; like when the movie name Ponmuttayidunna “Thattaan” had to be
changed to Ponmuttayidunna “Tharavu” following severe protests from the
goldsmith community who took offence from the original title; like when the
multiple endings of Harikrishnans kick started a storm verging on communal; like
with the filming of a live childbirth in Kalimannu and the partial nudity in Thanmatra cocked a lot of eyebrows. Many derided Fazil’s Ente
sooryaputhrikku as bad influence, Jeetu Joseph’s Drishyam for sending the
wrong message and Alfonse Puthran’s Premam as provocative and misleading.
Similarly film Parudeesa directed by R. Sarath was accused of instigating
anti-religious propaganda and Padmavyooham directed by Bijoy P.I.
for posing security concerns to Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The ambitious Adoor
film Kathapurushan
garnered much criticism for the resemblance of its stammering protagonist to veteran
Communist leader EMS Namboothiripad. Most Shaji Kailas films scripted by Renj
Panicker from Ekalavyan to Commissioner courted controversy for
daring the system. So was the case with numerous I.V. Sasi films written by T.
Damodaran. Following is a list of movies in the Malayalam language that became
controversial for its subject matter as well as its portrayal more than any
other.
