Priya Prakash Varrier's winking clip from 'Oru Adaar Love'.
HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: On the day when a team of Hyderabad police officials investigating the case against Malayalam film director Omar Lulu, for making an ‘objectionable’ song for Odu Adaar Love, visited Kerala to serve a notice to the director, the latter and actor Priya Prakash Varrier moved the Supreme Court on Monday.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South Zone, V Satyanarayana, the department contacted Kerala police officials and obtained residential address of the director and served a notice seeking his explanation on Manikya Malarayi Poovi song featuring Priya Prakash Varrier.
“Based on the explanation of the director, an action will be initiated. For now, we have registered cases against the director. If he mentions the names of other crew members, they will be considered for further investigation,’’ the DCP said. A few days ago, the Falaknuma police registered a case as a group of youngsters from the Old City in Hyderabad lodged a complaint and alleged that the lyrics of the song insulted Prophet Mohammed, hence, hurting Muslim sentiments.
Meanwhile, the plea by Priya Varrier, a B.Com student from Trichur in Kerala, sought an order quashing the criminal complaints made against them in the states of Telangana and Maharashtra and said that the complaint is against freedom of speech and expression. The movie makers had on February 9 released the promotional video of the song on YouTube and within 10 days, it had hit 34 million views. On February 14, an FIR was registered against them in Telangana.
Further, a number of criminal complaints were filed by persons and organisations in Mumbai, who demanded that the video be taken down.The petition claimed that the song has been misunderstood by people residing outside Kerala, as it is being translated and taken out of context, leading to the registration of multiple criminal cases against the petitioners. “It should be important to note that the song is originally from an old folk song from Kerala which was written in 1978 by PMA Jabbar and was first sung by Thalassery Rafeeq, in the praise of the Prophet and his wife Beevi Khadija. The claims that it hurts the religious sentiments of the Muslim Community are without any basis,” the plea stated adding that the movie is an adolescent love story.
“What is hard to fathom is that a song which has been in existence for the past 40 years, which was written, sung and cherished by the Muslim community in Kerala is now being treated as an insult to the Prophet and his wife.”The plea also cited the order of the Apex court when it dismissed a petition seeking a ban on the release of An Insignificant Man, a documentary on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
