America
An artist must express freely and fearlessly: 'Unfreedom' director
By
Arun KumarWashington, April 19
Joining issue with Indian
censors for banning his controversial film "Unfreedom", director raj
(ed: correct) Amit Kumar says "the most important social responsibility
of an artist is to express freely and fearlessly".
"Do
filmmakers make films to give away messages," asked Kumar during an
interview with IANS. He is currently engaged in a court battle for the
release of his film, banned in India for its controversial portrayal of
religious fundamentalism and intolerance through two parallel stories.
Shifting
between New York and New Delhi, one tale follows a Muslim terrorist
who kidnaps a liberal Muslim scholar to silence him.
The other
charts the travails of a young Hindu woman who resists an arranged
marriage because she is secretly in love with another woman.
"The
Indian censors said that my film has no message and hence it should
not be certified. If I have to give messages, I will use cell phone,
email, letters or Facebook," the director said.
"As far as I
understand it, we create a certain experience and it is up to the
audiences to find meanings in it," Kumar said, adding: "And, yes, we
create a film experience hoping certain key thoughts and ideas are
expressed through that experience."
"And, no, the experience
does not get lost in two parallel narratives but is created because
those two parallel narratives are together," he asserted.
"Like
you are questioning, I am hoping audiences will also question why these
two narratives are together and what they should make of relationships
in two parallel narratives," Kumar said.
"Unfreedom" opens in US
theatres on May 29. Simultaneously, Kumar is launching a crowd-funding
campaign to finance a release in India via alternative methods.
Kumar
also does not agree that juxtaposing religious fundamentalism with
social intolerance is akin to comparing apples and oranges.
"Apples and oranges? Religious fundamentalism is social intolerance. I don't think I need to explain that. Look around you."
Asked
if he had tried to balance Islamic fundamentalism with Hindu
fundamentalism, Kumar said: "I am not a politician who has to play a
balancing act to win votes."
"I am also not a filmmaker who wants
to play a balancing act to win audience. I am saying through my film
what needs to be said, and that is why they can't digest it."
"They
are shocked by the fact how and why someone can make a film like this
and how someone can have the courage to show them the mirror," Kumar
said.
On depiction of nudity and religious symbolism in his
portrayal of a lesbian relationship, Kumar asked: "I deal with questions
of sexuality and I should stay away from depicting sex?
"I deal
with relationship of religion and sexuality but I should stay away from
depicting that symbolism? What world are we living in? Should we stop
making films?
"Is Indian censorship telling us that through their
method of censorship they have taught Indian filmmakers how to depict
better than other countries?
"Or is it the other way around, where the censor board and its nonsense has come in the way of Indian filmmakers," Kumar said.
"Absurdity
and hypocrisy have no limits," he quipped when asked about the Film
Certification Appellate Tribunal's feeling that because of his film,
communal passions will be ignited to disrupt public order.
He
blamed "those who ignited communal passions on streets of India and
ignited riots throughout the country and turned a secular nation to a
highly volatile state with religious tensions".
That they "are
today trying to say that a film will ignite communal passions and
people will kill each other because they watch my film is bullshit of
the fundamentalist order".
On the change of the film's title from
its original "Blemished Light: Faces of Unfreedom", Kumar said: "The
word 'Unfreedom' was always central to the film, and I felt it even
more after censor's decision. As a title, 'Unfreedom' is also easier to
communicate."
Asked why he did not agree to the cuts suggested
by the censors given that "NH10" on the theme of honour killing was
passed by them, he said: "I don't agree to cuts and in my opinion no
filmmaker should. I am making the film, and not the censor board."
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])