DD to telecast Patwardhan's controversial documentary on Oct 8

Mumbai, Oct 5 (UNI) After much controversy, Doordarshan's national network will finally telecast Anand Patwardhan's award winning documentary 'Father, Son and Holy War' on October eight at 1000 hrs.

'Father, Son and Holy War' is a two-hour documentary shot from the mid 1980s to the mid 90's and covers a wide spectrum of events, from the Sati in Deorala in 1987 to the Bombay riots and subsequent bomb blasts in 1992-1993.

It is a critique of the male bias that permeates the dominant religions of the world, with specific reference to Hinduism and Islam in India, and a critique of ruthless politicians who use the communal divide to further their own ends, Patwardhan said in a press release.

He said the telecast marks the end of an 11-year-old battle. The 1995 documentary on connection between communal violence and the male psyche had won two National and several international awards.

The release added that when the filmmaker submitted it for telecast, Doordarshan rejected it. Patwardhan took the matter to the Bombay High Court and in 2001, the court ordered DD to telecast the film but DD chose to appeal the matter in the Supreme Court.

The SC asked DD to review the film. DD's own preview panel approved the telecast but Prasar Bharati, under the Government of the previous BJP-led NDA, stepped in and rejected the film.

Patwardhan moved the High Court again and won a fresh order to telecast in 2004. Prasar Bharati once again went to the Supreme Court in appeal. Finally on August 25, this year, Justice Lakshmanan and Justice Panta of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court order to telecast the film without cuts within eight weeks of the judgement.

Noting that several times in the past, DD had rejected Patwardhan's documentaries until the judiciary forced them to be telecast, the Honourable Justices went so far as to pass strictures against DD and Prasar Bharati reprimanding the broadcaster for finding 'flimsy excuses' time and again not to telecast Patwardhan's films.

When asked what DD found so hard to swallow in his films, Patwardhan said, ''When a government and its bureaucrats become averse to the slightest sign of criticism, it signals a lack of self-confidence. America today is passing through a similar phase and resorting to outright censorship to cover up its war crimes in Iraq. In India, the BJP openly stifled the secular voice while the Congress merely gave it lip service. Luckily, for people like me, the Constitution has proven to be much more robust. It is this that gives us some hope for the preservation of our secular democracy.'' In 2004, the film was listed by Europe's Dox Magazine amongst the 50 memorable documentaries in world cinema.

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