National Award winning docu courts controversy,ex-narcotics official says film promotes cannabis trade

“In the past five years nobody raised any objections against my work. It was only when I smashed the cannabis network in Malana that people were motivated to speak against me,” Sharma says. He particularly took exception to suggestions that the alternate crops affected farmers.

As part of an ‘Alternate Development’ project,Sharma had promoted the cultivation of peas. “ In the documentary my conversation with the filmmaker was used without informing me and was edited in such a manner that I was shown responsible for the low income of the farmers,” Sharma says. He claims that poor market conditions had resulted in Malana’s farmers selling their produce at low prices.

The former narcotics bureau official found support from another National Award winning director,closely associated with the village. Vivek Mohan,National Award winner for ‘Malana – In Search Of’,accused today’s film makers of practising pseudo-activism under the garb of making documentaries. “Bom did not have much to offer in terms of art and culture and was merely promoting cannabis,” Mohan said.

Datta responds

While stating that he was encouraged by the tremendous response in Shimla for his documentary,Bom’s director Amlan Datta took exception to O P Sharma and Vivek Mohan’s objections. “The soul of the film is democracy and its heart is cannabis. It is on Malana and it’s an anthropological film. I don’t see reasons for such an objections,” Datta said.