Kissa Kursi Ka

Kissa Kursi Ka (transl. Tale of Throne) is a 1979 Indian Hindi-language political satire film directed by Amrit Nahata, who was a member of Indian parliament and produced by Badri Prasad Joshi. The film was a satire on the politics of Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi and was banned by the Indian Government during the Emergency period and all prints were confiscated. Music of the film was composed by Jaidev Verma.[1][2]

Kissa Kursi Ka
Film poster
Directed byAmrit Nahata
Produced byBhagwant Deshpande
Vijay Kashmiri
Baba Majgavkar
StarringShabana Azmi
Raj Kiran
Utpal Dutt
Rehana Sultan
Manohar Singh
Music byJaidev
Release date
1979
Running time
142 min.
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi

Plot

The plot revolved around a corrupt and evil politician Gangaram or Gangu, played by Manohar Singh, trying to woo personified public, depicted as mute and helpless looking (Shabana Azmi.) The movie is a humorous comment over the system and the selfishness of the politicians regarded as a motion picture version of the cartoonist columns that are the most brutal taunt over the politics.

Music
  1. "Janatha Ki Jai Bolo" – Asha Bhosle, Mahendra Kapoor
  2. "Sunte Ho Aji Sunte Ho" – Vinod Sharma, Madhur Bhushan, SaritaSethi, Sudhir Pandey, Pradeep Shukla

Cast

Ban and print confiscation

The film was submitted to the Censor Board for certification on in April 1975. The film had spoofed Sanjay Gandhi auto-manufacturing plans (later established as Maruti Udyog in 1981), besides Congress supporters like Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, private secretary to Indira Gandhi R.K. Dhawan, and Rukhsana Sultana. The board sent to seven-member revising committee, which further sent it to Union government. Subsequently, a show-cause notice raising 51 objections was sent to the producer by the Information and Broadcasting ministry. In his reply submitted on 11 July 1975, Nahata stated that the characters were "imaginary and do not refer to any political party or persons". By the time, the Emergency has already been declared.[3]

Subsequently, all the prints and the master-print of the film at Censor Board office were picked up, later brought to Maruti factory in Gurgaon, where they were burned. The subsequent Shah Commission established by Government of India in 1977 to inquiry into excesses committed in the Indian Emergency found Sanjay Gandhi guilty of burning the negative, along with V. C. Shukla, Information and Broadcasting minister of the time.[3][4]

The legal case ran for 11 months, and court gave its judgment on 27 February 1979. Both Sanjay Gandhi and Shukla were sentenced to a month and two-year jail term imprisonment. Sanjay Gandhi was denied bail. The verdict was later overturned.[3][4] In his judgment, District Judge, O. N. Vohra at Tis Hazari Court in Delhi, found the accused, guilty of "criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, mischief by fire, dishonestly receiving criminal property, concealing stolen property and disappearance of evidence".[5]

Bibliography
  • Amrit Nahata (1977). Kissā kursī kā. Rājapāla. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  • Jagat S. Bright (1979). "14. Kissa Kuris Ka". Allahabad High Court to Shah Commission. Deep & Deep Publications. p. 43.

References
  1. "The first ladies of cinema". The Times of India. 14 December 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  2. Abhinav Prakash (2007). Code of Criminal Procedure. Universal Law Publishing. pp. 98–. ISBN 978-81-7534-614-7. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. "30 greatest stories revisited: Sanjay Gandhi and 'Kissa Kursi Ka' film lampooning him : Cover Story". India Today. 18 December 2006. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  4. "1978– Kissa Kursi Ka: Celluloid chutzpah : Cover Story". India Today. 24 December 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  5. "Sanjay Gandhi Guilty in Film Case". St. Petersburg Times. 27 February 1979. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
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