Stalling tactics: Sasidharan on IFFI Jury viewing ‘S Durga’ on Monday

By Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, Nov 27 (IANS) Sanal Sasidharan, who directed "S Durga", has termed as "stalling tactics" the decision of the jury of the International Film Festival Of India(IFFI) to watch the film on Monday evening.

The IFFI has been instructed by Kerala High Court to screen Sanal Sasidharan's controversial Malayalam film "S Durga". The process of screening the film seems to be moving ahead with the jury of the festival resolving to view the film on Monday evening.

However Sasidharan is not convinced of the IFFI's intentions of screening the film.

"The jury is supposed to watch my film on Monday evening. Only after that would a decision be taken on when it will be screened at IFFI. These seem like stalling tactics to me. I mean, the jury will watch the film on Monday evening. They will then come to their decision. The number of days left for the Festival is rapidly shrinking," said Sasidharan.

However, he sees a silver lining.

"At best,my film gets to be finally screened at the IFFI. I'd see that as a big victory for independent cinema in India. At worst, whatever the IFFI does with my film it now has a much larger audience waiting to see it when it is released commercially. For that I must thank the I&B ministry and the IFFI organizers."

Ravi Jadhav whose Marathi film "Nude" was also ousted from the IFFI was not able to join Sanal Sasidharan in the fight against arbitrary governmental intervention in the screening process.

"Ravi must have had his constraints and decided against wasting his time in the legal process. I must say it has so far been a pretty frustrating fight for me," admits Sasidharan.