Hindi political action thriller gang Dhurandhar 2 has fallen into legal trouble weeks before Tamil Nadu elections and the film was petitioned in Madras High Court for banning release in Tamil Nadu.
The petition says several of the movie’s scenes and dialogue will effect voters and shake up the electoral dynamics. And at a time when people have political anxiety, the message of the film seems to have political weight in that it violates the Model Code of Conduct that voters should be able to vote and and the laws that are imposed in every election.
The court will hear the petition and decides in certain cases that the film’s content is in line with legal or electoral advice. For now we don’t yet see any kind of ban; but, from this is an issue as part of the broader problem that we face of censorship, artistic freedom and the timing of movie release in an election.
Ranveer Singh (Ranveer Singh, lead protagonist of the movie with a good and great movie to act in a very good movie is glowing the lead and has been really strong as well with good box office in few of the various regions around the world. But the Tamil Nadu issue is in question and such restrictions of any kind may well harm its prospects to become a studio/box office success.
In such cases, lawyers say, free expression should be balanced and elections not equal. Films are traditionally too inflammatory a matter ever to be banned but just not easily so that films’ political effect on viewership is still difficult. The courts in the majority of cases will make disclaimers before banning the movie and replace small changes not in the entirety.
As explained in section I, the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct prevents the use of certain media such as films for campaigning and so what happens in a commercial movie if a commercial film is violating these standards and a lot of such material will have to be investigated.
Still, the makers of Dhurandhar 2 are not getting into public comments. However it might help them to stress a point in the production staff’s minds that the film is the fiction and not so much politics, he said.
These thoughts are mixed, public and film fraternity alike. Such sensitive activity must surely be controlled in elections but others say the request goes beyond that to suppress artistic freedom.
The decision of the Madras High Court will therefore affect whether the film continues to run in Tamil Nadu after this hearing or whether it was temporarily blocked.
Dhurandhar 2 still does well in other parts of the country as of now, we can expect this to be very important over the coming days with Tamil Nadu’s legal changes.
