Inshallah, Football | Censorship Woes | Hammers High

A terrorist is a human being who has forgotten the basic human values. He deserves no pardon. But should his child be cursed for his father’s ideology? This is the core concept of the movie- Inshallah, Football made by Oscar nominee ‘Little Terrorist’ - short film’s director Ashvin Kumar’s latest outing.

Inshallah, Football is a movie about a young boy ‘Basha’ who aspires to become a soccer player. He is selected for a Brazillian Football club, Santos FC (yeah, Pele’s club) in an exchange program. But his visa and passport are held on the grounds of his father’s association with a terrorist group. Incidentally, his father left the family about two decades ago when he was barely two months old. The movie is about the boy, his mentor an Argentinean coach and their struggle.

The content of the movie tend to show Armed Forces in a grey light. As expected, the movie drew flak and discontent in the Government fractions and without giving a proper opportunity to present his case, Kumar was given an A certificate. With an ‘A’ certificate, it becomes very difficult to market such sensitive and non-sensual movies in this country. Theatres consider such movies dry and refrain from showcasing them.

While the makers defended their case by sticking to their stand of making sensible cinema, Censor board defended the certificate by highlighting the face that the content of movie is mature and can be misunderstood by young. Kumar and his supporters shot back by pointing out that there are more political reasons behind the certificate than sensibilities of the Censor Board.

Another movie was given ‘A’ certificate during the same time- No One Killed Jessica. This movie was based murder of a model, Jessica by son of a Congress politician. Any raised eyebrow??

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh