Jaipur/ New Delhi: As the ghost of Padmavati continues to haunt us, the chairman of Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) seems determined to exorcise the nation of the story of the Rajput princess that has given sleepless nights to many.
The CBFC has set up a panel of historians to consult before it can release Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film - starring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh.
One of the panelists RS Khangarot, professor of History in Agrawal PG College in Jaipur, Rajasthan told News18.com, “Poetic license does not mean you make history, or change history.” The history professor is set to meet CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi in January next year.
Khangarot, who has worked on an academic paper on Jodha Akbar, was consulted by film maker Ashutosh Gowariker during the shoot of his film. However, the film was not released in Rajasthan.
“Padmavati should not be seen as a Bhansali versus Karni Sena, or Bhansali versus Rajput, but it should be seen as Bhansali versus history debate. I think the film should be historically correct, you must not deviate from the facts,” said Khangarot.
For the Jaipur professor, the major point of concern is-- “Padmavati’s Ghumar dance”. Khangarot called it “a feudal dance, popular in Western Rajasthan” that Padmavati did not perform. “It is an unconscious effort to maintain balance between nature and human life. And it is performed within female quarter. There is no male around. In Rajasthan there is another dance called Chari, where fire burns over the brass pot. They have mixed the two dance forms, it is a deviation,” he said.
Khangarot also feels that the film has mixed legend with history. “There is Padmavati in history as told in folklore and as legend as narrated by Jayasi’s Padmavat. There seems to be an attempt to mix legend with history,” he said. The history professor gave the example of Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi to emphasise on how films based on historical characters should be made.
He said there is too much emphasis on “romanticizing Jauhar,” which comes with a context and can’t be seen in isolation. “Jauhar was followed by Sakka, when men left for war with the message that they won’t return. We can’t show Jauhar in isolation,” he said.
The other panelist, retired professor BL Gupta from Rajasthan University, who was earlier accused in being involved in an examination question paper leak racket said, his schedule to meet Joshi is not decided but will make sure there is “no distortion of history.”
Commenting on the attempt by the CBFC to set up the panel, retired professor of Rajasthan University, Rajiv Gupta said, “This is in violation of freedom of expression. All art can’t be reality.”
He said that the film has fallen in the hands of “caste assertion, where the Rajput are trying to assert their importance of glorious past by occupying the center of this controversy.”
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