CBFC bans member’s film, Mohalla Assi

The censor board has banned it’s own board member Dr. Chandraprakash Diwedi’s highly controversial film Mohalla Assi, which pokes fun at the commercialisation of the holy city of Varanasi.

Interestingly the film’s trailer, laced with the most colourful Hindi expletives and cuss words, mouthed by actors with a sober image such as Sunny Deol and Sakshi Tanwar had been ‘leaked’ on the internet long before the film was submitted for certification. Subsequently, the entire film, which features some of the most risque lines heard in films in recent times, was also ‘leaked’ on the Internet before its submission.

Finally, Mohalla Assi has been shown to the censor board, which has decided to ban it completely. Apparently, the film evoked extreme reactions from some of the members within the censorboard.

The story, based on the well-known novel by Hindi writer Kashinath Singh is a scathing critique on the changes that have come upon the holy town of Varanasi.

In the film, Sunny Deol plays a self-righteous priest fighting against the ecological and moral pollution of Varanasi. The film’s all-pervasive mood seems to have infected Deol. Never known to have mouthed even a single profanity in his entire career, Deol is heard calling himself a ‘ch$#%ya’ in the trailer and commenting on the rampant ‘guru-shishya ke naam pe pela-peli’ (screwing in the grab of teacher-pupil) in Varanasi.