THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an unprecedented move, the State Women’s Commission has issued a notice to Mammootty and the makers of the movie Kasaba for insulting womanhood. Never before has the Women’s Commission initiated such an action against a feature film. The commission was especially critical of Mammootty.
“An actor of his standing and fan following should at least have the common sense to realise that when he performs such cheap acts on screen it would have a bad influence on the public,” the commission said.
“Actors with social responsibility like Mammootty should also take the high moral stand that they would not act in such films,” it said.
The Women’s Commission also pulled up the Regional Censor Board for not being alert. A meeting of the Board held on Tuesday decided to direct the Board to be more stringent while judging films using the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
The decision to issue notice has been taken on the basis of a report filed by a commission member who had watched Kasaba after widespread popular protest against the “misogynist” inclinations of the film. What has come under the scanner of the commission is the sequence where the police officer played by Mammootty pulls a lady IPS officer by the belt of her pants and mouths sexually-loaded dialogues.
The commission said that the sequence demeans womanhood and was a crude attempt to sully the dignity of women. “Freedom of expression is not the freedom to insultand ridicule womanhood,” the commission said in a statement here on Tuesday.
“Being a body formed to protect the rights and dignity of women, the commission cannot condone such trends,” the statement added.
