Voice of Amartya Sen gets beeped in the film The Argumentative Indian. Image Courtesy – https://www.easterneye.eu
A documentary film on Amartya Sen, ‘The Argumentative Indian ’, has been obstructed by the Central Board of Film Certification, India, with its filmmaker, Suman Ghosh, being advised to silence words like ‘Cow’, ‘Gujarat ’, and ‘Hindutva’ expressed by the Nobel Laureate in the film.
It was the time of arrival of the film, ‘The Argumentative Indian’ in current days at Kolkata has been unsure to get film certificate. Suman Ghosh, the filmmaker, refused to mute four words mentioned by the Kolkata regional office of the Central Board of Film Certification.
The step to censor specific words by the Central Board of Film Certification has been sharply condemned by the Chief Minister of Bengal, Mamata Banerjee. Filmmaker Suman Ghosh expressed that he was stunned and shocked by this kind of control on ‘Freedom of Expression’.
Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of Bengal, expressed her view on Twitter that if the voice of a Nobel Laureate like Amartya Sen can be suppressed like this, what would be the voice of common people who would express their views against the ruling government?
Filmmaker Suman Ghosh directed the film ‘The Argumentative Indian ’, which is a documentary on the life of 83-year-old ‘Nobel Laureate’ Amartya Sen. Amartya Sen used some of the words in an interview with economist Kaushik Basu in the documentary film. Those words are ‘Gujarat’, ‘Cow’, ‘Hindutva view of India’ and ‘Hindu India’.
The flow of the documentary film is like this – Amartya Sen discusses ‘social theory’, ‘development economics’, ‘philosophy’ and the ascent of ‘right-wing nationalism’ throughout the world, including our country. The film covers a time period of 15 years (2002-2017); and the total film is based on an interview between Amartya Sen and his student economist Kaushik Basu.
Read: What was Amartya Sen’s contribution for India? Dilip Ghosh questioned
A private screening of the narrative was held at state-owned ‘Nandan’ early this week in the presence of Amartya Sen himself and a large group of eminent persons.
Dadasaheb Phalke awardee Soumitra Chatterjee stated on the stand of the Central Board of Film Certification, “It is nothing but a foolish move. In a way it is fascism”. Soumitra Chatterjee also said, “We are a democratic country. Why should such a thing happen? He (Amartya Sen) is respected all over the world. He has the liberty to express his views. I feel outraged”.
Famous film director Goutam Ghosh expressed, “What I hear makes me shocked. Any such recommendation is absurd. There should not be censorship of feature films and documentaries or any work in the first place”.
Reference: Indian Express
