Click to play videoAhmedabad: All efforts to screen Parzania in Gujarat seem to have failed. More than anybody else, it has come as a shock to Rupa Mody, on whose son's story the film is based.
"I was so hopeful of getting back my son if the movie is released. I was waiting for so many years and now this happens. Maybe, this is my fate," says Azhar's mother.
Rupa lost her son during the Gujarat riots, and that story is now being told in the movie Parzania. She had hoped the movie would help her in getting Azhar back.
But the ban on the movie by the state's theatres and multiplexes, allegedly on instructions of the Sangh Parivar, has shattered her hopes.
People who are preventing the release of the film in Gujarat, perhaps do not realise that they are actually creating obstacles in a family's desperate search for its lost son.
Public opinion on the issue stands divided. While some say hiding history is no way of solving present problems, others feel it is a story better left untold.
"Yes, the movie should be screened in Gujarat. It is the best way to tackle any communal problem," says Himanshu Rachh, a lecturer. Others like Nirav Patel, a businessman, say, "The present situation is not good. Some want it to be screened, some are opposing it. I think it should not be screened. Maybe it should be, after a few months."
The matter has now reached the court. A retired government official in Mehsana district has filed a criminal complaint in a district court, seeking action against Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi. He says it is because of Bajrangi that he cannot watch the movie in Gujarat.
The director of the movie, Rahul Dholakia, argues that the movie is more about the plight of parents trying to retrace their child than the Gujarat riots.
"It is our moral responsibility towards the family, and that's why the movie needs to be shown. There are other alternatives too, but ideally, it should be released in theatres," says Dholakia.
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