Nirbashito: A Pen, the Sword and an Exile

It may have been mere coincidence. But two things happened on March 24 this year. Nirbashito got the national award for best Bengali film and Supreme Court scrapped Section 66A of the IT Act that made online posts a potential crime. For Nirbashito's director-actor Churni Ganguly, the coincidence was absolution. The film is about freedom of speech. Fictional but based on a slice of the life of Taslima Nasreen, the Bangladeshi writer exiled by her country. Nirbashito means banished. The director-actor will receive the award on Sunday.