CHANDIGARH: Amid protests from various outfits, the controversial film MSG -- The Messenger starring Dera Sacha Sauda(DSS) chief Gurmeet Ram Raheem, was released here and in Haryana, while Punjab had imposed a ban on it.
Hordes of ‘Premis’, as the DSS followers are called, thronged the mall-cum-multiplexes to watch their ‘Guruji’ on the big screen. The followers came to the city even from far-flung places in Punjab just to watch the film.
And the flick was released in over 3,000 screens across the country. “The situation is peaceful so far,” said Chandigarh SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill. And there was a large posse of police deployed near the cinema halls and multiplexes. Besides, a tight vigil was mounted on the several hundred people, who had
come down from Haryana and Punjab to watch the flick. “The movie is too good, it carried a good message to the public to stay away from drugs and intoxicants. The Punjab government had erred in its decision to ban the movie. That’s why we had to come all the way here wto watch it,” says Puran Chand, a businessman from Ludhiana. A group of women hailing from Buchao Mandi near Bathinda echoed this. “The movie is about humanity and eradicating social evils -- it has not hurt the sentiments of any religion, so why has it been given a political colour?” asks Gurtej Kaur and RajwinderKaur.
While Neelam and her husband Monu, who had come with their family from Sangrur, said, “Our Guruji has acted very well in the movie and spread a message for the public, we will watch the sequel of MSG also.”
However, there have been reports that INLD workers had staged protests at a few places in Haryana against the release of the film. In a few movie halls at
Sirsa and Karnal, the film’s release was delayed by the theatre owners. In Karnal, cinema halls have put the film’s screening on hold.
Students of various schools and colleges also held protests against the film.