After failed efforts by others, Churni finally belled the cat: Taslima

KOLKATA: Exiled author Taslima Nasrin is awaiting the release of Churni Ganguly’s directorial debut ‘Nirbashito’ — a film that is inspired by her life.
Incidentally, ‘Nirbashito’ begins with the line, “inspired by Minu and her mother”. Minu and her mother refer to Taslima and her ‘very important cat’. The film, however, doesn’t use Taslima’s name anywhere and the cat in ‘Nirbashito’ is called Baghini.Churni, who plays the exiled author, goes unnamed.
Taslima, however, doesn’t wish ‘Nirbashito’ to be mistaken as her biopic. Speaking to TOI from an undisclosed location, the author said, “There are many fictional elements in the film. The reasons why I had to leave my motherland or why fundamentalists wanted me exiled haven’t been explored in the film.”
But the National Award-winning ‘Nirbashito’ is still a courageous film by Taslima’s standards. Earlier, too, attempts were made to make films on her. Directors signed film contracts only to have abandoned the projects.
“Political reasons crippled them. A private television channel was supposed to serialize my work. Even that got cancelled,” Taslima recalled.
A few years back, Churni’s husband, director Kaushik Ganguly, had gone to Delhi to show his script on Taslima’s relationship with Minu. “Kaushik was supposed to begin shooting immediately after getting my approval,” she said. Months passed and then she saw that Kaushik had started directing ‘Shobdo’ instead.
Taslima realized that working with anything connected to her was jinxed. “I had got banned as a person. Nothing to do with me would make the cut,” she said.
Therein, insisted Taslima, lies Churni’s guts and success. “I would have liked the film to explain why I was exiled and why there is a price on my head. Perhaps Churni knew that risking it may have stopped the release of ‘Nirbashito’. She took Kaushik’s satirical tale of a mother and her cat and added a tragic angle to it. I’m glad a female director has made a film that others couldn’t,” the author said, adding, “Churni has, both metaphorically and otherwise, finally belled the cat.”
Like in the film, Taslima also had problems taking her pet along in exile. “Minu stayed with my friends. But the bits about the cat falling ill in the film are fictionalized,” Taslima added.
One scene from ‘Nirbashito’ has the protagonist discussing women’s need/choice of sexual freedom. “Among other things, I have also written about sexual freedom of women. Churni touching upon this aspect isn’t in conflict with my beliefs and writings,” Taslima pointed out.
The timing of the movie’s release — August 14 — is also significant for Taslima.
“A secular author writing on human rights had been sent on exile from a progressive state like West Bengal. The reason was to appease some religious fanatics who were against freedom of expression. The film uses this event as a springboard. Releasing ‘Nirbashito’ on the eve of India’s independence Day has a special significance. It will serve as a reminder to open the debate on freedom of expression,” she added.
Having battled pain, fatwa and threats for blogging, has the word ‘fear’ lost its relevance for her? “It has been 22 years this way. The word ‘fear’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary. I just wish I truly had a place called home where I could write in peace,” Taslima added.
In June this year, the author lost her brother in New York. He was fighting cancer but it wasn’t the killer disease that took his life. A deadly hospital bug, likely to have spread because of poor hygienic conditions, resulted in his demise within a few hours of the attack. Time has just started healing the personal wounds and now the author anticipates a film that talks about a few of her battles. sandeeps2709