Is making a semi-autobiographical film on an iconoclast painter a crime; well it would certainly seem so if one Ketan Mehta is to believed.........
Ketan Mehta who gained international recognition; plaudits and awards for churning out age defying movies/flicks like Bhavni Bhavai, Mirch Masala; Maya Memsaab; Holi and Oh Darling Yeh Hai India to name just a few had just about started heaving a mammoth sigh of relief at seeing his labour of love "Rang Rasiya" getting a nationwide release after languishing in the cans and doing the rounds of international film festivals for almost six years; but a legal notice served on him by a supposed descendant of Raja Ravi Varma has surely come as a huge dampener.......
"Rang Rasiya" is loosely based on the life and times of one of India's most celebrated artists Raja Ravi Varma and has the brooding and smouldering Randeep Hooda essaying the role of the painter while elfin beauty Nandana Sen charms the screen and woes the audiences in the role of his muse........
Alas!!! one Indira Devi Kunjamma who claims to be Raja Ravi Varma's grand daughter and lives in Kerala; has approached a local court with a petition to stall or stay the release of Ketan Mehta's magnum opus as according to her; the same demeans her grandfather by portraying him as some kind of playboy and womaniser.........
In his defence; Ketan Mehta says that he had indeed received the legal notice served on him; but failed to understand the rationale or logic behind the same as "Rang Rasiya" was not the autobiography of Raja Ravi Varma but a narration of his life and times based upon a book on him written by one Ranjit Desai well over 25 years ago..........
Further averring that he had waged a valiant struggle for close to a decade as he ardently believed that Raja Ravi Varma was both a great artist and social reformer whose tale more than deserved to be narrated or told on a 70 mm screen; Mehta said that he was dismayed to learn that a descendant of one of India's most strident proponents of the freedom to the right of expression and free speech was hell bent upon curbing another individual's right to the same............
According to Mr. Mehta what was even more regrettable and galling was the fact that people had started shooting from the hip without even viewing the film and making an effort to decipher what it stood for and set out to portray...........
Refusing to be cowed down by such legal notices; Mehta said that his lawyers would file a suitable reply to the notice in the said court as he was a tad too tied up in ensuring that his labour of love got the kind of thunderous release it so richly deserved.............
Ketan Mehta who gained international recognition; plaudits and awards for churning out age defying movies/flicks like Bhavni Bhavai, Mirch Masala; Maya Memsaab; Holi and Oh Darling Yeh Hai India to name just a few had just about started heaving a mammoth sigh of relief at seeing his labour of love "Rang Rasiya" getting a nationwide release after languishing in the cans and doing the rounds of international film festivals for almost six years; but a legal notice served on him by a supposed descendant of Raja Ravi Varma has surely come as a huge dampener.......
"Rang Rasiya" is loosely based on the life and times of one of India's most celebrated artists Raja Ravi Varma and has the brooding and smouldering Randeep Hooda essaying the role of the painter while elfin beauty Nandana Sen charms the screen and woes the audiences in the role of his muse........
Alas!!! one Indira Devi Kunjamma who claims to be Raja Ravi Varma's grand daughter and lives in Kerala; has approached a local court with a petition to stall or stay the release of Ketan Mehta's magnum opus as according to her; the same demeans her grandfather by portraying him as some kind of playboy and womaniser.........
In his defence; Ketan Mehta says that he had indeed received the legal notice served on him; but failed to understand the rationale or logic behind the same as "Rang Rasiya" was not the autobiography of Raja Ravi Varma but a narration of his life and times based upon a book on him written by one Ranjit Desai well over 25 years ago..........
Further averring that he had waged a valiant struggle for close to a decade as he ardently believed that Raja Ravi Varma was both a great artist and social reformer whose tale more than deserved to be narrated or told on a 70 mm screen; Mehta said that he was dismayed to learn that a descendant of one of India's most strident proponents of the freedom to the right of expression and free speech was hell bent upon curbing another individual's right to the same............
According to Mr. Mehta what was even more regrettable and galling was the fact that people had started shooting from the hip without even viewing the film and making an effort to decipher what it stood for and set out to portray...........
Refusing to be cowed down by such legal notices; Mehta said that his lawyers would file a suitable reply to the notice in the said court as he was a tad too tied up in ensuring that his labour of love got the kind of thunderous release it so richly deserved.............
No comments:
Post a Comment