Reading about all controversies over Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s RAM-LEELA and Hirani-Aamir’s PK in the recent years, if you think that we have now become more sensitive in the issues related with religion in the present times then you are gravely mistaken as this has been happening since the Golden Era of Hindi films unfortunately.
In 1961 even Dilip Kumar had to face a rather embarrassing scenario when his film GANGA JAMUNA (as actor-producer) got caught in the censor troubles and was asked to make many major cuts. Interestingly many of those cuts were on violence but a few were also because of the thespian’s original personal backdrop with a different name. The film was later passed after being shown to the then Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru along with the much needed explanations given by Dilip Kumar himself and is now considered as a cult classic of Hindi Cinema widely.
Later in the late eighties, Manoj Kumar, the man popularly known as Bharat Kumar making films representing the Indian culture brightly embracing its various religions equally, also had to face a strong opposition from the censors as well as the people when he courageously made a satire titled KALYUG KI RAMAYAN in 1987. Starring Prem Chopra, Om Prakash, Madhavi, Bindu, Rajiv Goswami and more it had music by Kalyanji Anandji along with lyrics by Maya Govind, Verma Malick and Manoj Kumar. The storyline pointed towards the changing state of our society more interested in imitating the west forgetting their own traditional values and had an interesting concept of Lord HANUMAN visiting the earth to set a family right. Directed by Babubhai Mistry and edited by Manoj Kumar, every character in the film had a name similar to the ones found in the sacred RAMAYAN and the title role of Pawan Kumar was played by Manoj himself enacting as Lord HANUMAN interacting with everyone as a common man.In the veteran’s own words, this was one of his best scripts that went through a lot of changes and lost all its original charm in its final version. The characters were earlier called Ram-Sita and it also had a song with the lyrics, “Kalyug Ki Sita Milne Judge Ko Chali, Sau Chuhe Khake Billi Haj Ko Chali” that couldn’t be included due to the objections raised (later changed to "Kalyug Ki Kanya"). The censor board refused to pass the film (with a threat of ban) without the suggested cuts and thus the title had to be changed from KALYUG KI RAMAYAN to KALYUG AUR RAMAYAN, but the film was no longer the same as conceived post all the alterations. Interestingly this is also considered as one of the weakest films from the visionary director in his last phase that also couldn’t do any wonders at the box office despite all controversial publicity gained before its official release.
Giving you a personal account, recalling that time of the year in 1987, every theatre used to have many huge hand-painted display hoardings of the upcoming films in their premises weeks before their actual release. So there was a large hoarding of the said film too in NATRAJ theatre in our locality (West Delhi, now taken over by FUN CINEMAS) with the title written in big letters KALYUG KI RAMAYAN having a red image of Lord HANUMAN in the backdrop of Manoj Kumar standing with his hand in the pockets dressed in white (as shown in the picture above). For weeks we kept seeing that hoarding catching attention with its attractive colours standing tall along a few others.
But just a couple of weeks before its release date, as the news of many objections raised on the film’s suggestive content came in the newspapers, one fine morning we were informed about an agitation being made in the theatre premises shouting some slogans asking for pulling the posters down. After a timely intervention by the Police officials, the protestors went back making some noise and within a day came the next news of film’s title being changed inserting an ‘AUR’ making a clear distinction between the two heavy words, ensuring its timely release.One of our friends used to be a local banner and board painter in those days, operating from a small shop just behind the theater who was then called in by the owners after the change of title. And accompanying him we excitingly witnessed the painting of AUR instead of KI in the film’s title written on the huge hoarding converting it to KALYUG AUR RAMAYAN.
Looking back, though today many might rate the movie as a B-C grade, below average film made on an interesting concept. But admitting it honestly, I really enjoyed watching it then on the bigger screen with all those tacky special effects and love to watch it again in the present times too on the home video format quite often.
Concluding the write-up, yes we are currently into the second decade of the new millennium enjoying all the amazing developments around. Yet we still find it hard to grant such creative freedom to the film-makers/writers or painters when it comes to the subject of RELIGION ………..as always.
HIS BLESSINGS
(For friends interested in reading the original interview of Manoj Kumar given back in June 2012, do click at the link below and Enjoy!)
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Kalyug Aur Ramayan and Censor Issues, Kalyug Ki Ramanyan caught in censors, Did You Know facts about Bollywood, Amazing unknown facts about Hindi films, Manoj Kumar and Censor issues with film Kalyug Ki Ramayan, Bollywood Trivia at bobbytalkscinema.com
