Gujarat, the much-maligned land of the Mahatma, refuses to move ahead on the path of tolerance or the road of repentance, at least officially. The unofficial ban on the controversial new film Parzania was a crude reminder to those who have joined the chorus of Vibrant Gujarat, led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, of the state's unaddressed demons. The timing could not have been better. It was mid-February and the media was busy counting the amount of investment proposed at the recent Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit. The air was thick with a sense of euphoria manufactured by the state machinery and propagated by the mainstream press, when suddenly Parzania appeared on the scene.
The subject matter of Parzania – a film about hell on earth, in which a family loses a child in the 2002 Gujarat riots – was no secret, as it came to Gujarat after winning a number of accolades on the festival circuit. The film is based on a true story. Fourteen-year-old Azhar Mody, son of Rupa and Dara Mody, went missing in the carnage of February 2002, in which ex-MP Ehsaan Jaffrey (in whose house the family had been hiding) was burnt alive by a mob, and the police chose to stay away. Azhar's mother is still waiting to find her son. It was the suffering of the Mody family, friends of his, that moved director Rahul Dholakia to make Parzania.
The film was made in English, probably keeping the international circuit in mind, with noted actors Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in the lead roles. There was no sign of protest when Shah and Sarika, on a pre-release tour, visited Ahmedabad and spent time with Rupa and Dara Mody. Indeed, the media had a field day with their visit. Even the announcement of the film's release date did not create much of a stir. Things started changing mysteriously only thereafter.
Gujarat ni asmita
The burden of banning the film fell to the very people who were supposed to screen it in the first place, the Multiplex Owners' Association (MOA). The MOA was put on the defensive from the start. News of the association's meetings with Dholakia and the postponement of Parzania's release appeared prominently in the English-language press. During the course of the meetings, however, the name emerged of Babubhai Patel – aka Babu Bajrangi, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader. Thereafter, Bajrangi was projected as the saga's main villain, threatening theatre owners and forbidding them from screening the film.