21 Months Of Hell, documentary based on Emergency, denied certificate by CBFC

21 Months Of Hell, a 78-minute documentary based on the Emergency in India by Malayalam filmmaker Yadu Vijayakrishnan, has been denied a certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). [caption id=“attachment_4283481” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  A still from 21 Months Of Hell. YouTube[/caption] “Censor Board has rejected my film wholly. They didn’t suggest any modification, just rejected it. They said they’ll forward the report to Mumbai headquarters for a revising committee,” the filmmaker confirmed to ANI. The same report states that the CBFC has cited too much of violence as the reason for not issuing it the certificate. The film is majorly made of interviews with the victims where they open up about the torture that they went through during the Emergency. It also has a few stories enacted as feature representation. A photographer by profession, Yadu, was asked to produce proofs of the torture method shown in the film. “I told them these are testimonies of real-life victims. And they said they want written proof, such as government reports from that time. This is ridiculous because the press was also gagged then and the government will never file a report about the crimes it committed,” he told ANI. Yadu also added that the film has focused on the sufferings more than the political implications and happenings in the country during that time. He also accused the board members of being politically biased. He alleged that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is accused of interfering in our field but his film talks about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) work to restore democracy. He claimed that most members of the CBFC are leftists and of Congress, as stated in the same report.