Jonaki cinema wears a deserted look after screening of the movie was stopped. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, June 2: Pole Pole Ure Mon, the premiere of which was stalled by the Election Commission on March 17 because it violated the poll code of conduct, has now got entangled in another controversy — this time for misrepresenting the family of cultural icon Jyoti Prasad Agarwala.

Jonaki, the movie theatre set up by }Jyoti Prasad in Tezpur in the thirties and now owned by his cousin Srimanta Agarwala, stopped screening the film from today after receiving a complaint from his family.

The family alleged that the director had misrepresented them by insinuating that they had no cultural and linguistic ties with the state.

“The director projects the hero, Pritam Agarwala, as having little knowledge of Assamese language. Pritam introduces himself as the great grandson of a Rajasthani family and grandson of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala from Tezpur. In one scene, Pritam’s mother is shown as a Rajasthani woman, who says in Hindi that she was Jyoti Prasad’s daughter and was happy about her son’s visit to Assam. In another scene, Pritam is shown visiting a naamghar in Assam and asking what prasad in a naamghar means to people,” said Oli Agarwala, daughter-in-law of late Hridayananda Agarwala, brother of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala.

She added that the director did not seek permission from the family about referring to them in the film.

“Our entire family has become Assamese to the bone. All the five daughters of Jyoti Prasad are married in Assamese families — four of them are in Guwahati and one in Sivasagar now. We are living like any other Assamese family. We have accepted and follow all Assamese customs religiously. That one of our family members does not know how to speak in Assamese or about prasad in a naamghar is such a ludicrous thought. None of Jyoti Prasad’s daughters was married off to a Rajasthani. This is very disheartening and unfortunate,” Oli said.

On the alleged lapses in the film having escaped the family’s notice all these days though it was released on May 20, she said they came to know of the “distortion” only on Tuesday when they watched the film at Anuradha cinema in the city.

“When we saw the film, we were speechless. We contacted the other family members and asked the manager of Jonaki to stop its screening immediately,” Oli said.

The family members held a meeting in the house of Satyashree Das, one of Jyoti Prasad’s daughters, and decided to approach the film censor board with the request to remove the objectionable scenes from the film.

Beauty Boruah, one of the producers of the film, said as soon as she came to know that Jonaki had decided to stop screening the film, she contacted Timothy Das Hanse, the director of the film. “Hanse told me that the story was an imaginary one, and that there was no mention of Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwals, but of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala only,” she said.

“It is nonsense. What is the difference between Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Jyoti Prasad Agarwala from Tezpur? It was clearly mentioned that Pritam was a grandson of Jyoti Prasad Agarwala from Tezpur,” said Oli.

The film, made in 35mm cinemascope, was produced by Phukan Konwar, Purnananda Gogoi and Beauty Baruah. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has acted in the movie. Nipon Goswami, Dinesh Das, Moloya Goswami, Arun Nath, Arun Hazarika, Madhurima Choudhury, Hiranya Deka, Ravi Sarma, Barsharani Bishaya, Gayatri Mahanta, Rimpi Das, Jupitora Bhuyan are among the actors who feature in the film.