KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 ― The director of a local Tamil language film highlighting the plight of Indians in Malaysia questioned the National Film Censorship Board’s insistence on a different ending for Kabali which stars superstar Rajinikanth.
Shanjhey Kumar Perumal, who directed the critically-acclaimed Jagat, said he was disappointed with the Censorship Board’s insistence on the need for “moral retribution” in movies, before they are rated for general viewing.
“Our question is, LPF says there must be moral retribution as it's their guideline. Can I then ask, what era are they in now?” Shanjhey told Malay Mail Online, using the Bahasa Malaysia abbreviation for the board.
“Do you know why we can't progress? Because we are in denial! Artistes don't have the freedom to express the truth,” he added.
The Censorship Board chairman Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid ― in an interview with Malay Mail Online on Sunday ― confirmed that Malaysians would see an ending which differs from what their fellow fans elsewhere in the world see when they watch Kabali.
Abdul Halim said they requested this in order to insert a moral lesson that crime does not pay.
“Normally under our guidelines, there must be some kind of element of retribution in the movie. Especially if the characters shown in the movies are involved in crime, then there must be some kind of comeuppance for that,” he told Malay Mail Online.
The original ending was intentionally left ambiguous, but the local version leaves nothing to the audience’s imagination.
Understandably, the decision left local fans of Rajinikanth fuming.
Shanjhey also expressed fear that such a policy will lead to a denial syndrome in the community on key issues affecting them.
“If this was said 30 years back, maybe we can agree but this is the internet era so if you demand for that kind of ending that's not sensible.”
He also questioned the board’s movie rating policy, explaining that Jagat was given a PG18 rating, while movies like Kabali and Skyfall were accorded a PG13 rating.
“What LPF would say is that local movies which play up controversial issues or sentiments can be related to very closely by those here, unlike foreign movies which also dabble with the same topics.
“In that case, Kabali is also local as all the issues portrayed in it are local and it was even set here. It's essentially a Malaysian movie,” he added.
Jagat — which is a loose Tamil slang for the Malay word “jahat” meaning “bad” — tells the story of the hardships faced by Indians in the 1990s, after the estates where their forefathers who were shipped in from India by the British to work in were closed.
The film deals with the universal themes of migration, urban poverty and the resulting downward spiral into crime.
This is also a similar theme portrayed in Kabali which portrays Indians here as a marginalised community.
Set in Malaysia, the film features Rajinikanth, 65, as the titular character, a gangster who was framed for a crime decades ago.
“We are questioning now, not because we wanted PG13 for Jagat, for television release. We are done with Jagat. Jagat will be available online soon.
“Why we are questioning this policy is for the sake of upcoming Malaysian films,” Shanjhey added.
