JALANDHAR – Decrying portrayal of Punjabi women in the movie ‘Udta Punjab’, the Punjab State Commission for Women has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking its impleadment as a party in the ongoing petition against the movie.
The commission filed an application on Wednesday through its chairperson, Paramjit Kaur Landran, who is a SAD government appointee and also an elected member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) from SAS Nagar (rural).
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The application will be taken up by the high court bench of justice M Jeyapaul on Thursday during the resumed hearing of the petition. An amicus curiae is also to submit a report on whether the movie is fit for public viewing or not.
It has been submitted that trailers of the movie were very shocking and women, especially the young generation in Punjabi society, have been portrayed in an “entirely obscene manner” that is “thousands of miles away from the reality”.
The trailers in which actress Alia Bhatt has been shown a “drug addict” and using “abusive language” are not shown to be “stray incidents”, “but the whole picture depicts as if it is the real state of affairs” in Punjab, the women commission has argued.
The women commission has quoted Punjab opioid dependence survey report of the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses, stating that a minuscule 2.32 lakh are dependent on drugs in Punjab.
The commission has underlined that the freedom of expression through audio-visual mode were a part of the freedom of speech. However, this liberty and the right is not absolute and is subject to some restrictions, it has stated, while claiming that respect for women in Punjabi society is more than in any other society.
