Fiji Hindi film not allowed to be shown in Fiji

from w
The movie Adhura Sapna

The Censor has decided the themes and perhaps language are not suitable for Fiji audiences - even though the film is a local story and has Fiji actors. Maybe the censors think it will stir up racial undercurrents or something. It has already been shown selectively in New Zealand and Australia I believe.

For a summary of the story go to a website here

from a Fijilive yesterday:
No screening of Adhura Sapna in Fiji
Sunday September 30, 2007
Fiji made Hindi movie, "Adhura Sapna" has been banned from public exhibition in Fiji.

Former Fiji citizen and director Vimal Reddy said the Fiji Censor Board viewed the movie recently and certified it as unsuitable for screening due to strong racial themes. Reddy said in reply to an application for certification in Fiji, a board member stated "I have found that the movie is base on land issue and racial discrimination. I have also found some dialogues to Indians and Fijians unsuitable".

He said a spokesperson from the Attorney General's office said an appeal could be made directly to A-G Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

"While we are very disappointed with the decision, we will respect the reasons given by the Film Censor Board in Fiji and abide by it," said Reddy.

"We strongly believe that despite the very frank portrayal of the land lease and racial issues in the cane-farming community, the message in the movie is a positive one. It is about unity and a possible solution for the two races to live together peacefully. This message to the people is not possible to be shown in a movie without openly discussing the problems being faced".

Reddy added the dialogues of the movie had already been considerably altered from the extremely blunt original version of Raymond Pillay's 1970's script.

Meanwhile the Melbourne based producers of the movie are looking at the option of making an appeal for re-consideration.

The movie is about a grandfather's dream of being a successful farmer. He is faced with a lot of difficulties such as lease expiry and is unable to fulfil the dreams, hence "Adhura Sapna."

Both lead artists are from Suva. Former Miss Hibiscus contestant Naazmeen Dean plays the lead actress with Rajnel Prasad who has completed his acting classes from the Fiji Institute of Technology.

Also some comments from
http://headheeb.blogmosis.com/2007/02/an_expired_lease.php

Thus, although Adhura Sapna was "shot in Suva, Lautoka and Tavua" and has a uniquely Fijian plot, it is aimed primarily at an expatriate audience for whom Fiji Hindi is rapidly becoming less relevant. Within another generation, the Indo-Fijians living in Australia, New Zealand and the United States will become exclusive English speakers, leaving a diminishing and increasingly impoverished community at home. It may be that Fiji Hindi's literary flowering has come a little too late, and that its use as a language of prose and film will lose the race against its decline as a medium of communication.