By IANS,
Panaji: A film documentary by late painter M.F. Husain will finally be screened at the ongoing 42nd International Film Festival of India despite right wing protests, said organisers Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters, festival director Shankar Mohan said Husain’s documentary “Through the eyes of a painter” would “definitely be screened” Wednesday, but a slot had not been finalised yet.
“We are looking for a slot. It will definitely be screened,” Mohan said.
Mohan had said Saturday that the screening of the documentary, which is part of a homage by the film fraternity to the artist who died this year, had been ‘deferred’ after protests from right wing organisation Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), which had claimed that screening of the documentary would amount to contempt of court as a case regarding the screening of the film was ‘sub judice’.
Rajshree Gadekar, chief of the women’s wing of HJS said the 1967 film shot by Husain and produced by the Films Division of India (FDI) should not be screened at the festival because the painter had insulted India.
Mohan said the IFFI organisers had sought advice “in our own way and arrived at clarity on the matter”.