‘Elizabeth Ekadashi’, a Marathi film set to be the
opening film of the feature film section of Indian
Panorama at IFFI 2014, is facing opposition from a
Hindu group, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) for its
objectionable content. Dr Manoj Solanki of Hindu
Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) has written to Bimal Julka,
Chairman of IFFI 2014, seeking withdrawal of the
screening of the film as “it is hurting the National
sentiments of Indians and the religious sentiments
of Hindus”. In his memorandum submitted to the
Chairman, Solanki further says, “The word ‘Ekadashi’
is the tithi (eleventh day of the lunar month of Hindu
Calendar) which is related to Hindu God Bhagvan
Vishnu. In Hindu Dharma there are twenty four
Ekadashis in a year – each with a particular spiritual
significance. The name of the film is misleading and
denigrates the term ‘Ekadashi’. Secondly the poster of
the film depicts Elizabeth standing on a brick which is
akin to the incident of Bhagvan Vithal standing on the
brick thrown by his devotee Pundalik and also shows
Bhagvan Vithal on a bicycle. This is also distortion of
the incident and hurts religious sentiments of Hindus.”
When the director of the film Paresh Mokashi
was contacted for his comments, he appeared to
be unaware of the demands of HJS. Mokashi said,
“The film has been shot in Pandharpur – the place
of Bhagvan Vitthal and has been released all over
Maharashtra. Having said that, the intention to hurt
people’s feelings was never there. There are various
agencies that work on promoting the film – they
design certain things… post certain things. I request
the objection maker to watch the film. Although I am
unaware of the point of conflict of the organisation
(HJS), let me see what their official demands are.”
The Festival Director of IFFI, Shankar Mohan
avoided commenting on the issue, citing not having
read the memorandum and studied the issue. A K Bir,
Head of the Jury for the Feature Film Section of the
Indian Panorama, also seemed to be unaware of the
memorandum seeking the withdrawal of the film from
the festival and similarly, also avoided commenting
on the same.
It is worth noting that in the 2012 edition of IFFI,
Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) had complained
citing desecration of Bhagavan Sri Datta in a
song from Marathi film ‘Deool’ and had lodged
a complaint with the Central Officers of the
International Film Festival of India (IFFI). HJS had also
demanded that film star Akshay Kumar, the producer
of Hindi film titled ‘Oh My God’ not be invited
for inauguration of the film festival. According to
HJS, Akshay Kumar who acted as an incarnation
of Bhagvan Shri Krishna, in the film was shown in
Western attire and was shown rotating a key chain
(akin to the Sudarshan Chakra) on his finger.
