Malayali filmmaker looks at legal route against ban on short film

A Malayali filmmaker, unhappy with the central government’s decision to ban his short film ‘Anthem for Kashmir’, is exploring legal options to contest the decision.

The nine-minute film by Sandeep Ravindranath that narrates the current situation in Kashmir—such as enforced disappearances, fake encounters, and other human rights violations—was released on May 12.

However, earlier this month, Ravindranath received a communication stating that the short film was being blocked in accordance with a confidential notice from the examination committee of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, citing section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

Ravindranath told DH that he couldn’t understand the reason for blocking the short film, as it did not have any inflammatory content, it just narrated the real scenario. The filmmaker said he was looking at legal options against the ban.

The film was released by noted filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and vocalist T M Krishna. By the time it was blocked, it had 11,000 views and had received good reviews, Ravindranath said.

According to him, the ban on the film can only be considered as one more instance of covering up the real picture, even as the distorted versions were getting promoted.

Strongly condemning the ban on 'Anthem for Kashmir' the Federation of Film Societies of India's Kerala chapter said that the film gave a real picture of the present situation in Kashmir.