'Portrayal Of Ravana, Lord Hanuman Divorced From Indian Civilisation; Dialogues Are Cheap': Plea In Allahabad HC Against Exhibition Of 'Adipurush'

Stating that portrayal of characters such as Ravana and Lord Hanuman in the Adipurush movie is completely divorced from the Indian Civilisation, an amendment application has been filed before the Allahabad High Court in a pending Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea (filed last year) against the exhibition of the Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan and Kriti Sanon starrer movie.

The amendment plea has also objected to the dialogues written by Manoj Muntashir Shukla terming them to be 'ridiculous, 'filthy' and 'against the glory of Ramayan yug' and it further seeks impleadment of Shukla as a respondent in the pending PIL.

"Manoj Muntashir has attacked rich culture & oldest civilization i.e., Sanatan Sanskriti, and while writing dialogues of the film, he has completely destroyed the language of our deities, hampered character of our icons & role models...(Shukla) has written HIGHLY OBJECTIONABLE, VERY LOW STANDARD, CHEAP AND FUNNY dialogues in the name of creative liberty...It offends sentiments of Hindu Community by presenting the religious characters in an inaccurate and inappropriate manner that goes against descriptions found in the works of authors like Maharishi Valmiki & Saint Tulsidas" says the Amendment plea.

Essentially, this PIL plea was moved by Social Activists Kuldeep Tiwari and Bandana Kumar through advocates Ranjana Agnihotri and Sudha Sharma last year in December stating that the movie cast aspersion on the characters of the great epic Ramayana and tarnishes the image of the cultural heritage of Ayodhya and Hindu religion in general.

[PIL Against Exhibition Of 'Adipurush' For 'Offending Sentiments' Of Hindus]

"portrayal of characters such as Ravana and Lord Hanuman in the film is completely divorced From Indian Civilisation": Amendment plea moved before the #AllahabadHighCourt #Adipurush pic.twitter.com/DkzuYKbcsM

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) June 23, 2023

The PIL plea further stated that the trailer of the movie is clumsy and indecent, which has resulted in hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus. Though the HC, while hearing the matter in January this year, issued notice to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), no reply has been filed by the board in the matter.

As per the petitioners, the occasion to file the amendment plea in the matter arose in view of the fact that the movie has now been released thereby generating criticism and resentment from across the country due to inaccurate and inappropriate portrayal of Hindu religious characters including Ravana and Lord Hanuman.

"The portrayal of characters such as Ravana and Lord Hanuman in the film is completely divorced From Indian Civilisation. The bearded look of Ravan played by Saif Ali Khan in the Film is hurting the sentiments of the Hindu Community as the Brahmin Ravan is shown having raw red meat making a ghastly face in a wrong manner which is an insult to Hindu civilization," the amendment plea avers.

The plea further states that any variation with the hairstyle, beard, moustache and dressing manner including appearances of the Hindu religious characters as per Ramayana is bound to hurt the sentiments of worshiper's devotees and religious believers.

In this regard, the amendment plea prays for a direction to the opposite parties to remove the objectionable dialogues, and scenes from the film which depict the religious characters in an ugly manner. 

In related news, on Wednesday, the Delhi High Court refused to advance the hearing of a petition seeking the removal of alleged objectionable scenes in the movie Adipursh. The petition against the movie is tentatively listed for hearing on June 30.