Pune Police investigates screening of film ‘I am not River Jhelum’ in NFAI 

The National Film Archives of India (NFAI) on Law College Road hosted the film “I am not River Jhelum” as part of the “Cinemas of India – A Festival of Contemporary Indian Films”. 

The Pune City Police have opened an investigation into this matter. A right-wing organization named Samasta Hindu Bandhav Sanghatana protested the screening, claiming that the movie included disparaging remarks about the Indian Army. This sparked the investigation.

At the entrance, the group held up signs that read “Jai Shree Ram.” A few of their activists who were in attendance asked the organizers about the movie. The incident happened at 3:30 p.m. The critically and award-winning feature film “I am not River Jhelum” offers insights into the life of its young protagonist, Afeefa, who resides in Kashmir.

Following the incident, Deccan Police Station’s Senior Police Inspector, Vivek Hasabnis, showed up at the scene. Assuring the activists that the objections would be taken into consideration, he led them to the police station.

Prabhas Chandra, the film’s director, attended the screening in person. According to Hasabnis, they want to avoid any possible law and order problems, so a decision about what to do next will be made after getting legal counsel on the movie’s content.

A total of 18 individuals, including Ravindra Dilip Padwal, the president of Samast Hindu Bandhav Sanghatana, were detained by the police. Following the preliminary inquiry, they were released at approximately 8:00 p.m.

The film was a part of the “Cinemas of India” festival, which was put on by the Pune International Centre (PIC) in association with the National Film Development Corporation-National Film Archive of India (NFDC-NFAI) and the International Federation of Film Critics – India Chapter (FIPRESCI-India). Over the course of the three days, twelve critically acclaimed Indian films in a variety of languages were screened, including Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Manipuri-Tangkhul, Rajasthani-Hindi, and Khasi-Jaintia-Garo-Hindi.

With assistance from the Joint Secretary (Films), Premendra Mazumder, General Secretary of FIPRESCI-India, led the festival. Prithul Kumar, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The coordinator of the film festival was Latika Padgaonkar.