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Critically acclaimed Malayalam film director Jeo Baby has said that he would take legal action against Farook College in Kerala, after it cancelled an event where he was invited to speak, without giving him prior notice.
“The programme was announced and publicity was given in social media. As I was in the dark about the reasons. I got a letter from the college students union that they would not cooperate with the programme as my statements are against the moral values of the college. The union says my moral values are the reason for the cancellation of the programme,” said the director of Mammootty-starrer Kaathal-The Core.
The director, whose latest film features the protagonist as gay, has said that he felt insulted over the college’s action.
Baby said he came to know about the cancellation of the programme only after reaching Kozhikode. “I want to know what ideologies are leading the colleges and students,” the director of Great Indian Kitchen said.
The theme of Kaathal-The Core that dealt with homosexuality has apparently irked the college union led by Muslim Students Federation (MSF), the students’ wing of the Indian Union Muslim League, prompting the authorities to call off the event on December 5.
Farook College in Kozhikode district, which has played a key role in educational empowerment of the community, particularly its women in North Kerala, had scheduled to conduct a discussion on ‘Subtle Politics of present-day Malayalam Film’.
The college’s film club had invited Baby and later the college authorities cancelled citing the students’ union’s allegation that the film director’s statements allegedly did not align with the moral values of the college.
Justifying the decision of the students’ union, MSF state president P K Navas said students have also the right not to hear him (Jeo Baby).
“The students have the right to say no to a person (Jeo Baby) who says that marriage is a vicious system, that I am against the concept of only one partner for a person, and that I am happy if ten divorces happen after watching my film,” he said.
Kaathal, which has been criticised by Muslim clerics, is set in Central Kerala, and the protagonists are Christians.
Days ago, Muslim clerics in Kerala had opposed the film saying that it would shatter the fabric of family concept. M M Akbar, prominent Muslim preacher of Salafism, said the film Kaathal is part of an agenda to give acceptance for homosexuality. “It is meant to brainwash the youth. In the 1970’s itself there had been attempts to bring youths into gender neutrality,” he said.
Deploring the boycott of the film director, SFI, the students’ wing of CPI(M), said it would pledge solidarity with the director.
Meanwhile, the Left-aligned SFI will stage a demonstration on the college campus on Thursday in solidarity with Jeo Baby.
SFI’s college unit leader T Ashwini termed the incident an insult to the student community in Kerala. “A film club at this reputed college should not have taken such a retrogressive stand. The college management is under the control of the students’ union. It was due to political pressure that the programme was cancelled,’’ she said.
Farook College, founded in 1948, marks a breakthrough in the renaissance of Kerala Muslims. In March this year, the college had appointed the first Muslim woman Dr Aysha Swapna as its principal.
It is to be noted that last year, when the Left government in the state wanted to promote gender-neutral uniforms in schools, IUML opposed the move saying that it would promote homosexuality. The government had subsequently recoiled from the move.
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