Freedom of thought & Expression

Last year I thought of checking out Old Deepti Naval movies and happen to watch movies like ‘Main Zinda Hoon’ , ‘Leela’. Then to know more about her movies I accidentally happen to see her website and her Filmography – There was this one movie which caught my attention ‘Anaahat’ – 2003 Marathi movie Produced and Directed by Amol Palekar. (I have not watched the movie yet) – Below the brief synopsis of the movie from Deepti’s website which again was based on the ‘ … accepted social custom of NIYOGA.. ‘

In my last few visits to library, 2 books have caught my attention ‘One Part Woman’ and ‘Asura’ ;  everytime I picked the books  read the synopsis, random pages of the book and then decided for later read … and for the past 2-3 days everyday I get to see atleast 1 article in news paper regarding Author Perumal Murugan and his book and his decision to withdraw his books and to stop writing . As the newspaper report says “ Copies of the book were actually flying off the shelves at the book fair … while they had around 30 books on the display at 5pm on Wednesday , all were sold out by 8 pm” and I am sure next week when I go to library I wont get to see ‘One part woman’ .. .. Was wondering,  people who are burning the books ,  will they demolish the temples and caves where god and goddess are sculpted and painted in ways which might be objectionable to ‘their’ religious sentiments (limited knowledge of religion)  …

On one side our leaders proclaim that genetic science and vimana existed in ancient time, and on the other side people/group on the same side of the leadership do not believe or accept that there existed system like Niyoga which has references in ancient Indian Literature . When present day author writes about it he is asked to apologies , to withdraw his books and to has left with no choice but to stop writing …. The richness of ancient Indian culture was because of its openness, its matured approach , and hence it would be correct to say there was solution to every problem – 

If someone says that everything is explained in our tradition , I am ready to accept that , but then question is if we have solution for everything then why we have so many problems ? Not sure what  %age of people have that pure knowledge …  (of tradition) Fact remains most of the literature is in a language which is suppose to be read by only ‘upper caste ‘ and the knowledge did not (does not) flow down to the ‘aam janta’  - why is it the literacy %age still so low in our country inspite of having solid tradition ? Then the blame goes to  the Governments of independent India since 1947 …

We have the oldest civilization, religion, traditions and culture. I still am proud of many of the things, but the I also believe without  progressive thought process and approach any marvelous successful civilization/solution looses its relevance and probably decays ….. 

Anaahat Story 

Set in the 10th century B.C., this tale revolves around the then accepted social custom of NIYOGA i.e. selection of a mate for impregnating a married woman whose husband is incapable of impregnating due to ailment or impotency.

All male Senate, considering the ailment and the age of the King, declared its decision of NIYOGA for their Queen who had to accept the harsh reality against her will. As female sexuality is constructed in male terms, women are often unable to identify their own needs, wants and desires. Queen Sheelavati breaks this alienation and asserts herself against male dominance.

The film explores – the Senate members’ unending justifications for their decision; the King’s emotional turmoil during the long hours of the night of NIYOGA; the Queen’s awareness of her sexuality through the experience of that night, and their altered equations thereafter.

ABOUT THE FILM

Anaahat celebrated 60 weeks of exhibition in Pune, India

World Premiere at Pussan Film Festival at Bangkok, Palm Springs, Manchester, Oslow

Indian Panorama, IFFI, 2003