Last year Rajinikanth’s Jailer and Vijay’s Leo earned over ₹50 crore from the Kerala box office, a rare feat for non-Malayalam films.
While the movies were praised for their making, they were criticised for the excessive violence and gore, which made them non-palatable for family audiences, and young children.
Even in Malayalam films, there has been a gradual increase in violent scenes. The issue came to the forefront once again with the controversy surrounding Joju George’s Pani (2024). The actor-director allegedly threatened a research scholar as the latter wrote a negative review of Pani criticising the portrayal of the rape scene in it.
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What is the Pani controversy about?
Adarsh HS, a research scholar, wrote a review of the movie Pani on his Facebook page. The review criticised the wrong portrayal of the rape scene, which is a crucial incident in the story. The reviewer also questioned how the movie got a U/A certificate from the censor board.
Soon after, Adarsh shared another post in which he claimed that Joju George blackmailed him on a WhatsApp call, as he gave a negative review of Joju’s film. Adarsh also shared the call recording, in which, Joju George can be heard asking the reviewer if he has the guts to stand in front of him (Joju). However, Adarsh said he didn’t get scared by the threats and that he has in fact lost all respect for Joju George.
Later, in an Instagram post, Joju said that the reviewer was vehemently discouraging people from watching the movie and that the points mentioned in the review were taken from different WhatsApp groups. Joju also claimed that there was a targeted campaign against his film and that only after a couple of days did his film gain momentum.
However, a day later, the director at the success meet of Pani said that he regretted calling the reviewer, “I didn’t know what to do if such an attack was made against my film, that’s why I just called the person who wrote the review.” He later asserted that he would take a legal route against Adarsh.
Social media also was flooded with posts supporting Joju and Adarsh simultaneously. Few also opined that the movie’s objectification of women in rape scenes cannot be acceptable at all.
Pani review: Joju George’s directorial debut is an engaging revenge saga with a predictable story
No proper rating
According to Annu Mathew, a Kochi-based journalist, rape is often normalised in Indian films, including Malayalam movies.
“Movies with themes like revenge and murder more often than not have a backstory involving rape. Our filmmakers seem incapable of coming up with original ideas and frequently resort to including rape in an attempt to draw up revenge plots. Watching such themes over and over is traumatic to me as a woman and dejecting as a film enthusiast,” Annu told South First.
“In industries like Hollywood, they come up with creative ideas and interesting plots so there is less reliance on themes like rape,” she said.
“Moreover, no proper rating system is implemented on the ground to discern whether movies are suitable for children. Nobody is going to stop families with young, impressionable kids from unknowingly walking into a theatre that screens even hardcore themes like violence, rape or cuss words. Recently, a friend of mine was disturbed after he inadvertently ended up watching one such film in a theatre with his kids and aged mother. The authorities should be responsible while giving ratings for films based on violence and attacks against women,” Annu said.
A Thiruvananthapuram-based mental health counsellor speaking with South First said that she felt disturbed after watching the rape scenes in Pani.
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A recurring theme
Pani is not the only movie which has violent scenes. Mammootty-starrer Christopher (2023) too had rape scenes which are disturbing for the viewers. The movie however was rated U/A by the censor board.
Similarly, Nalla Nilavulla Rathri (2023) also had a U/A certificate even though the movie had violent scenes, which were new to Malayalam cinema.
Ela Veezha Pooncira (2022) and Jayasuriya’s John Luther (2022) also had gory scenes but got U/A certificates.
In our country where film viewing is a family activity, it is all the more important to certify the films more appropriately. Some of the films certified with U/A actually deserve an A certificate owing to the violent and sex scenes that don’t cater to younger children who watch films with their parents.
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Change in certification
However, in a welcome change, on 31 July 2023, the Lok Sabha passed the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2023. Even though the new bill is formed to curb film piracy, it introduces new age-based certification for movies.
There are now three certifications under the “UA” category — UA 7+, UA 13+ and UA 16+. This means that children younger than the given age limit can access certain movies under parental guidance.
Athira Rajkamal, a Keralite living in the US said “In America if a movie is R-rated or PG 13 (Parental Guidance) they would only let adults and people over the age of 13. I think a similar system should be implemented in India and a strict rating should be there.”
“I am against children watching scenes of rape and violence. Parents should make that judgment if rating is not available whether a movie is suitable for their child to watch or not. They could ask the opinion of someone who already watched the movie,” Athira said.
“I usually tell other parents when I recommend a movie if it has violent vulgar language, sex scenes,” she said.
Pranitha K, a Chennai-based Malayalee too said she doesn’t want kids to see gory or violent scenes. “I ask my son to close his eyes or not to look at the screen when such scenes come, and when he asks me why, I tell him that it will scare him,” she said.
Audience accepting violence?
A Kochi-based theatre owner said that most of the tickets for a big movie are sold on online booking platforms. On a personal level, we tell audiences who come with their children that the movie has violence in it. But some of them are ready to watch such films, he said.
A script writer told South First that there is no point in blaming the audience because they are accepting it, “The audience is more advanced and even filmmakers have been trying to be realistic.” He also said that family audiences are watching violence-based films with children.
“The question here is the classification of the movie certification. If all the films with violence and sensitive content are given A certification, then the filmmakers find it difficult to market their movie too,” an industry expert said.
“Films of big stars also come with cuss words muted as directed by the censor board to get U/A certificate, “ he added.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
