Godmother — Court seeks cuts, changes

RAJKOT, MARCH 12: The Rajkot civil court has allowed the release of Hindi feature film Godmother with certain alterations and deletions. Civil Judge D T Garasia directed the filmmakers not to show the scene in which heroine Rambhiben offers liquor to the womenfolk of her community behind closed doors on the pretext of celebrating the arrival of water in the village. The judge ruled that the scene might be retained if the women were shown taking some other drink, such as milk.

He also ruled that two scenes — Rambhiben smoking a cigarette and another at the taluka panchayat president’s chamber — should be deleted.

The judge observed that the court had reasons to believe that the movie depicted events similar to the life of Santokhben Jadeja, who had petitioned for a ban on the film. She obtained a temporary stay from the civil court on the release of the film, initially slated for February 19.

The heroine in the film is depicted as a mehr who rises to become a taluka panchayat president and finally anMLA. These are actual incidents in Jadeja’s life, the court felt. The judge, however, also observed that the court had reasons to view the movie as a work of fiction by the filmmakers.