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Decision of nat�l film award jury flayed

By Staff reporter

GUWAHATI, April 8 � An online signature campaign pleading for rejection of the decision of the National Film Award jury on Assamese feature film Ekhon Nedekha Nadir Xhipare that it is �not an Assamese film,�is on. Already over two hundreds of people from across the globe have put their signature on the petition, which has been drafted by some Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) of Assam origin.

The petition being submitted to Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, has stated that the film had already been certified as Assamese by the official censorship authority in India.

Most of the dialogues of the film are in Assamese. Non Assamese speaking actors in the film, like Naved Aslam, Bidita Bag, Sanjay Suri, Nakul Vaid, and Raj Zutshi, had to learn Assamese to speak their lines for the film in that language.

A minority of the dialogues in the film are in Hindi and in English, because the story line demanded it. There are reports that the decision to reject the film was taken due to the opinion of the ten non-Assamese members of the jury who concluded that it is not an Assamese film, despite the protest of the lone Assamese member of the jury, the petition said.

If the jury�s reasoning that parts of the film were shot outside Assam is to be accepted, half of the Hindi films produced in Bollywood currently would have to be termed French, Italian, Spanish, Malay, Arabic, and English, the petition said.

The petition has quoted resentment of noted actor Victor Banerjee, who said, �I am flummoxed by the sheer absurdity of a National Jury watching an Assamese language film, directed by an Assamese, Shot in Assam and then proclaiming it �not Assamese�. � I am ashamed at high-handed arrogance of ignorance of a jury that has no business calling itself �national.�

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