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Home ministry clears Zakhm

The home ministry said it had no objection to the main storyline of Zakhm, the semi-autobiographical Hindi film by Mahesh Bhatt and suggested some minor changes.

According to film industry sources, the report was submitted by a three-member committee of the ministry set up for examining the film, which is based in the backdrop of the 1992-93 Bombay riots.

The sources said the matter was not back with the Central Board of Film Certification, whose chairperson, Asha Parekh, decided to refer the film to Home Secretary B P Singh since she felt the subject it dealt with was very sensitive.

She had initially decided to refer the film to the Maharashtra home secretary, but later sent it to the centre after Bhatt pointed out that the film is to be released all over the country. However, Bhatt himself claims the CBFC examining committee had passed the film, suggesting only one dialogue cut. He has also claimed that Parekh took the decision to refer the film to the home secretary merely on the basis of the synopsis.

The film, which Bhatt claims is his last as a director, tells the story of attachment of a son to his mother, a Muslim woman married to a Hindu who is killed during the Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay of 1993.

According to producer Pooja Bhatt, it is partly autobiographical since Bhatt's mother herself was a Shia Muslim. The film stars Pooja Bhatt and Ajay Devgun.

Earlier, Pooja Bhatt had said that Mahesh Bhatt had asked Parekh to see the film for herself, but she had declined. He had assured her that the film did not have any scenes of violence. She said the centre should clear the film for general viewing as it dealt with the theme of communal amity.

Bhatt, who has decided to stick to writing and production henceforth, said the aim of the film is to emphasise that "it is secularism that makes everything tick in this country".

The filmmaker said the aim of this film is to make the statement to the fact that 'things may be bad vis-a-vis communal tension, but is not so bad that it cannot be improved.' Bhatt has essayed a short role in the film while Pooja Bhatt portrays the mother.

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