Explained: Behind controversy around Malayalam movie Empuraam

A graphic flashback

The film starts off with a 17-odd minutes long flashback that gives the backstory of Zayed Masood.

The flashback begins with riots breaking out. Zayed’s older brother is hacked to death by an unidentified assailant. A group of Muslims, including Zayed and his family, is then seen fleeing for safety on a tractor.

A Hindu woman, referred to in the film as mausi (aunt), offers the Muslim group refuge in her farmhouse. But soon, a mob of Hindu men carrying swords and iron rods arrives at the location, and goes on a rampage.

Balraj, the shotgun-wielding leader of the mob, kills mausi before heading to the barn, where Zayed and his family are hiding.

The ensuing massacre, led by Balraj, leaves no survivors — except Zayed, who was hidden by his father in an enclosure inside the barn.

References to Gujarat riots

The scenes described above have been criticised by right-wing groups for their resemblance to the 2002 Gujarat riots, which left more than 1,000 people dead.

The riots in Gujarat began on February 27, 2002 after a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire in Godhra, killing 59 RSS kar sevaks returning from an event in Ayodhya. Over the next few days, waves of retaliatory violence broke out all over the state.

Critics of the film say that it focuses on violence perpetrated by Hindus on Muslims, and brushes over the Godhra burning and other incidents, in which Hindus were killed.

Empuraan never explicitly states that Masood’s backstory took place in Gujarat — the flashback is simply introduced as “2002-India”. But the “2002” reference, along with the film’s opening credits, which contains visuals of a burning train with Hindu pilgrims and a montage of newspaper clippings about the riots, make a clear connection.

During the riots, the deadliest massacre took place on February 28 in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya neighbourhood. Nine-month pregnant Kausar Bano was raped and killed during the massacre. Empuraan too depicts the rape and murder of a pregnant woman.

A trial court in 2012 convicted and sentenced 32 individuals for their role in the Naroda Patiya massacre, although some of the convictions were subsequently overturned.

“It [Naroda] was a clear incident of human rights violation as 97 people were killed brutally within a day which included helpless women, children, aged persons. The climax of this inhuman and brutal act of violence was reflected in murder of an infant, who was 20-day old,” Special Judge Jyotsna Yagnik wrote in her judgement.

Among those who were convicted in 2012 was Babubhai Patel aka Babu Bajrangi, then the Gujarat leader of the Bajrang Dal and one of the lead conspirators behind the violence. His life imprisonment was commuted to a 21-year sentence in 2018. Patel has been out on bail on medical grounds since 2019.

Balraj is referred to as Baba Bajrangi later on in the film, and shown as the leader of a national right-wing party.

Cuts & edits

Following the outrage, the makers of the film offered to make a few “voluntary modifications”, which were cleared by the Censor Board on Sunday. The re-edited version of the film is slated to release by the end of this week. Some prominent changes are as follows.

• Balraj will now be referred to as Baldev instead of Baba Bajrangi in several scenes;
• “2002-India” at the beginning of the flashback has been replaced with “A few years ago”;
• The scene depicting plundered and abandoned shops has been trimmed;
• nScenes showing a “religious structure” (a temple), and cars with rioters passing in front of it, have been removed;
• Opening credits thanking actor-turned-BJP MP Suresh Gopi and IRS Officer Jyothis Mohan have been removed;
• Scenes depicting violence against women during the riots, including a 29-second-long scene, has been removed; and
• A reference to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been muted.