Now playing in Maharashtra: It’s MNS vs NCP over ‘Har Har Mahadev’
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has decided to take on the Nationalist Congress Party, saying the latter’s protest against Marathi movie ‘Har Har Mahadev’ is ‘condemnable’.
The Sambhaji Brigade on Monday stopped the screening of Har Har Mahadev in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
With the screening of Marathi movie ‘Har Har Mahadev’ running into trouble in Maharashtra, the MNS has decided to take on the NCP, whose leader Jitendra Awhad is among those in the forefront of the protests.
On Monday, the screening of the movie had to be cancelled at three places in Maharashtra. In Thane, protesters led by Awhad forced the cancellation of the movie’s screening. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, the Sambhaji Brigade stopped its screening and in Solapur, the Sakal Maratha Samaj stalled it. On Tuesday, all the theatres in Nashik refused to screen the movie.
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Awhad said the makers of the movie have distorted history and, therefore, the NCP will not allow its screening. “History has been distorted in this movie. Even the presentation of Mawlas (foot soldiers) have been depicted wrongly… It depicts Marathas and Marathis as two entities. Shockingly, there is a scene where Bajiprabhu wields sword against Shivaji… this is ridiculous,” Ahwad said.
The MNS hit back, challenging Ahwad to force the cancellation of the movie in Thane where it decided to hold free screening. “We will screen the movie in Thane. We challenge the NCP and Awhad to stall the movie. For eight-10 days when the movie was being screened, they kept quiet. And now they are protesting,” said MNS leader Avinash Jadhav.
The MNS claimed theatres in Nashik, Vasai and Bhiwandi have started screening the movie again.
MNS spokesperson Sandeep Deshpande said, “NCP stalling the screening of the movie is condemnable. The party is trying to give caste colour to the movie.”
The protests over the movie started after Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati, descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, held a press conference in Kolhapur on Sunday and alleged distortion of history in two movies including ‘Har Har Mahadev’, which was released recently. The other movie is ‘Vedat Marathe Veer Daudale Saat’ (an upcoming project).
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“The films have distorted historical facts about Shivaji’s life. ‘Har Har Mahadev’ has given its own twist to history. Such distortions will not be tolerated in the name of cinematic liberty. We strongly oppose their screening,” he said.
Stepping into the controversy, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “I have not seen the movie. I don’t know what the objections are… If there are any objections, those should be resolved by holding discussions.”
Warning those indulging in vandalism, Fadnavis said, “If anyone indulges in vandalism and ‘dadagiri’, it will not be tolerated.”
Former Sena minister Aaditya Thackeray said, “I have not seen the movie. But efforts should be made to ensure that bitterness is not caused between two communities. Objections from both sides should be heard.”
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NCP leader Rohit Pawar said, “If there is an agenda behind presenting wrong history before the masses, then there is going to be objection. None other than Sambhaji Chhatrapati has raised objections to the distortion of history in the movie.’
Demanding the arrest of Awhad, BJP state chief Chandrashekhar Bavankule said, “The movie depicts Shivaji slaying Afzal Khan… And Awhad seems to have objection to this, he has hurt national sentiments. He should be arrested.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
