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A farmer's advocacy group in Vidarbha has objected to the content of the just-released Hindi film Peepli Live, saying it is a wrong representation of the misery of the family members of farmers who committed suicide.
"The farmers in any region of India commit suicide due to the wrong policies of the government, not because family members can live off the compensation they would get," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari told IANS.
"I have written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan stating the same and I want him to either get the matter clarified or ban the screening of the film," Tiwari added.
The film shows how the protagonist of the film (Natha) decides to commit suicide as he is about to lose his plot of land because he is unable to pay back the bank loan. The protagonist's brother encourages Natha to commit suicide so that his family can live off the compensation money.
"People all over India watch films and hence follow and believe in some storylines. Today when I am fighting to get compensation for 40,000 farmers' widows, this movie sends out a wrong message. The farmers committed suicide due to several problems such as being unable to pay back the loans, infertile lands and continued sub-division of family owned plots of land, and not because they wanted their wives or family members to get compensation," Tiwari said.
Vidarbha has been the epicentre of the Indian 'agrarian crisis' that has seen two lakh farmers' suicides in the last decade.
home production Peepli Live,, Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS) has urged the Maharashtra Government to ban the movie immediately.
The Nagpur-based farmer's advocacy group said that the movie which revolves around a debt ridden farmer committing suicide for the sake of compensation, trivialises the issue and is "far from reality."
Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said, "TV serial Bairi Piya has shown that debt-trapped Vidarbha
farmers are selling daughters to clear their debt. While 'Peepli Live' is far from reality and an insult to poor farmers of Vidarbha who have been victims of globalisation and wrong policies of the state,".
VJAS said producer Aamir Khan should have consulted experts before finalising the script, adding the movie has put a question mark on the farmers' widows who are demanding compensation.
Khan on his part has maintained that the movie is not about farmers' suicide.
The low-budget film, a satire on the farmers' suicides and subsequent media and political response, is directed by Anusha Rizvi who has also written the story.
