A Bajrang Dal activist shouts anti-minority slogans in Ahmedabad a day after the 2002 Godhra riots broke out. (AFP file picture)

Mumbai, Aug. 4: Final Solution, an internationally acclaimed documentary by Rakesh Sharma, has been denied a certificate by the censor board, even as the film is slated for a commercial release in Germany next month.

The censor board’s letter states: “The film promotes communal disharmony among Hindu and Muslim groups and presents the picture of Gujarat riots in a way that it may arouse the communal feelings and clashes among Hindu (and) Muslim groups. It attacks on the basic concept of our Republic, i.e., national integrity and unity.”

It adds: “Certain dialogues involve defamation of individuals or body of individuals. State security is jeopardised and public order is endangered if this film is shown. It violates guidelines 2(xiii), 2(xiv), 2(xvii) and 3(i). When it is judged in its entirety from the point of view of its overall impact, it is not advisable to be exhibited. Hence refused under Section 5(b) 1 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952.”

The three-and-a-half-hour film, without making any comment, has riot victims narrating their accounts of the violence that was unleashed after the Godhra train incident. It also has footage of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and VHP leader Praveen Togadia exhorting Hindus, in the name of Hindutva, to strike back at “outsider” Muslims before the Gujarat Assembly elections that the BJP won hands down.

Earlier this year, at the Berlin International film festival, where the film won a major award, the Wolfgang Staudte Jury had said in its citation of the same film: “(It is) an epic documentary focussing on a culture of hatred and indifference. The directness, clarity and accuracy of the film enables the viewer to both reflect on the universality of the subject matter and relate this to his or her own human attitudes. The filmmaker has chosen a documentary form that completely shuns the use of melodramatic effects.”

Sharma said that the viewing by the censor board of the film was faulty. Pointing at the composition of the censor board, which has a sizeable section of BJP members and supporters, Sharma has written to censor board chairperson Anupam Kher, protesting against the “partisan manner” in which the film was viewed by the board.

Recently at a film festival in Bangalore, there were complaints lodged by the Hindutva brigade against the screening of the “uncensored” film. Final Solution was also rejected by the Mumbai International film festival this year and was screened at Vikalp: Films for Freedom, a parallel festival organised by the Campaign Against Censorship, a group of independent short filmmakers.

Sharma added that he would take recourse to legal action. Another film on the Gujarat riots, Akrosh, by Ramesh Pimple, had met with a similar fate, but was cleared by a high court judgement.

But Sharma also acknowledges that such censorship may actually be good for his film. “At the Bangalore film festival, there was a poster saying: ‘Censorship is advertisement paid for by the government’,” he said.