KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state police chief to constitute a team to watch the nonconforming movie Churuli which is available on the OTT (Over-the-top) platform and to inform the court whether any statutory violation or criminal offence has been committed by exhibiting the film.
The court ordered that the team should be constituted within three weeks and the team after watching the film prepare a report and the state police chief should file a statement based on the report before the court.
"Let the state police chief constitute a team. The team should watch the movie and examine whether there is any criminal offence or any statutory violations," the court held. The audiences in the OTT platforms are not captives. Nobody insisted that the audience watch the movie.
The petitioner, advocate Peggy Fen of Thrissur, alleged that the dialogues in the film were against public order, morality, or decency.
The court orally observed that "if this is the situation nobody can write a script for a film. There may be a demand to prosecute the person who wrote 'Vasavadatta'. The famous writers, great poets, and artists would also be prosecuted for their imaginary stories."
A cinema is a creation of a filmmaker. Artistic freedom generally means, freedom to imagine, create and distribute cultural expression. Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution envisages a fundamental right of Freedom of speech and expression with a reasonable exception mentioned in Article 19 (2) of the Constitution.
The film Churuli is exhibited on the OTT platform. Those who want to watch it can pay and watch it. There is no compelled viewing of the film. The audience of OTT platforms cannot be treated as captive audiences who are forced to watch the movie, it said.
"The court cannot dictate the filmmakers to use the "Valluvanadan" or Kannur or Thiruvananthapuram slang Malayalam by the characters in the movie. The court can only verify whether the exhibition of the film violates any existing law enacted to ensure public order, decency, or morality. While deciding the same the artistic freedom of the filmmaker should be in mind," observed the court.
The court said that before deciding the issue it will be beneficial to get the opinion of the state police department. Hence the court suo motu impleaded the state police chief as an additional respondent in the writ petition.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan issued the order on Peggy Fen's petition seeking a directive to remove the movie Churuli from the OTT platform as expeditiously as possible.
The court also narrated the short version of the film in the order. Churuli is an imaginery village of the filmmaker situated in a forest area. The inmates of Churuli have no connection with the outside world and all of them are absconding criminals. The language used by the inmates is colloquial and contains obscene and filthy language. Two cops reached Churuli to apprehend the born criminal. The cops tried to mingle with villagers to find out the criminal. The cops also used the same obscene and filthy language to find out the wanted criminal. At last, they arrest the criminal.
The petitioner argued that the language used by the characters is "filthy."
The petitioner pointed out that most of the families have subscriptions to OTT following the closure of theaters amidst the pandemic. The petition added that filthy and offensive words are contained in the film which outrages the modesty of the women and children. The movie is accessible to everyone including children and teenagers. Even though the movie Churuli is capable of evoking a sense of curiosity and mystery in the minds of the audience, there is an overdose of foul language. It is common among the people to imitate the dialogues of the movies and if this similar situation happens with the movie- Churili, it will affect the public morality and tranquility. Each and every character in the movie uses at least a single offensive word in their dialogues. The filthy languages are used lavishly without any curtain. A person of common parlance will not use such languages even privately at home. It seems that the filmmakers used such language deliberately with the intention to get more attention to the movie.
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