After 'Udta Punjab', 'Haraamkhor' runs afoul of censors for showing teachers in 'bad light'

It was just a week ago that the Bombay High Court had directed the Central Board of Film Certification to stick to its mandate of certifying and rating films rather than sitting in moral judgment on them and acting as a censoring agency. However, the CBFC seems to have done just that with its refusal to certify the film Haraamkhor — on the grounds that it depicts teachers in an objectionable light. [caption id=“attachment_2845488” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shweta Tripathi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui portray a student-teacher relationship in ‘Haraamkhor’[/caption] Haraamkhor portrays the relationship that develops between a teenage student (Shweta Tripathi) and a married tuition teacher (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). It has been screened at a number of international film festivals to positive reviews, and even won the “Silver Gateway of India” prize at the 17th Jio Mami Film Festival. The CBFC’s contention is that educationists occupy a respected position in society, and a depiction of a teacher-student relationship as in Haraamkhor is contrary to that. Incidentally, Anurag Kashyap is one of the co-producers of this film. In fact, during his press interactions for the Udta Punjab censorship row, Anurag had talked about Haraamkhor being stuck as well. However, he had pointed out that unlike with Udta Punjab, the CBFC had shared its comments on Haraamkhor with the film’s team. “They’ve (at least) got the letter from the CBFC that clearly says (what the objection to Haraamkhor) is,” Anurag had said, before talking about the need to overhaul the system of censorship in the country. Guneet Monga, the head of Sikhya Films, which is producing Haraamkhor, had said that they will now approach the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal to appeal the CBFC’s decision. Monga told PTI, “Yes, they refused to give us a certificate saying that the theme of the film is objectionable. They didn’t ask for any cuts, just refused to pass the film, saying that it puts the teachers in a bad light.” Haraamkhor is a crowdfunded film. Meanwhile, filmmaker Ashoke Pandit challenged CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani’s decision to withhold certification for the film. He pointed out that Nihalani’s own film, Andaz, had shown a relationship between a student (Karisma Kapoor) and teacher (Anil Kapoor).