Padmaavat remains out of bounds for Jaisi’s UP home

Lucknow: Jais, the home town of Sufi poet Malik Mohd Jaisi who penned the epic poem Padmavat on which Sanjay Leela Bhansali has based his film of the same name, has not yet been able to see the film that has grabbed headlines.

The film has not been released in Milan theatre in Rae Bareli which is nearest to Jais, about 40 kilometres.

Anand Kumar Yadav, the manager of Milan theatre, said that the distributors have not released the film in small towns because of security reasons. He said that they would wait for the situation to normalise before screening the film here.

“If theatres in Lucknow are avoiding screening the film, how can anyone expect us to brave the Rajput storm?” he asked petulantly.

A group of youngsters from Jais, travelled to Lucknow on Saturday morning to watch Padmaavat.

Mohd Ashraf Jaisi, a young graduate student, said, “Though we knew that Malik Mohd Jaisi belonged to Jais, we never showed interest in reading Padmaavat, but after this controversy we are keen to see the film and also read the epic poem”.

He said that his other friends were unwilling to wait for the film to release in Jais and had decided to travel to Lucknow — a distance of 110 kilometres — and watch the film at the earliest.

“Seven of us have come today and 12 of our friends will come tomorrow to see the film,” he said.

Padmavat was written by Malik Mohd Jaisi in Avadhi language at the turn of the 16th century and is considered an epic poem in Hindi literature. His other works include Akhravat and Zindaginama.

The people of Jais have already asked Sanjay Leela Bhansali to plough back a part of the film’s profit in building a suitable memorable for Malik Mohd Jaisi and renovating his home that is completely dilapidated.