Papanasam joins the long list of movies that was refused tax exemption by the Tamil Nadu Government despite being certified ‘U’ by the Censor Board. The reasons cited:
1) The police officers were depicted to be very cruel, and the way the family was treated during investigation seemed violent: especially the scene where a school girl is beaten up mercilessly by the police.
2) The scene in which a student shoots a video of a girl bathing, and uses it to gain sexual favours was found to be disturbing.
3) Moreover, the one who does the crime, has to do the time. The whole concept of the film was ‘wrong’.
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The criteria for granting tax exemption to a film, besides its Tamil title are: The film should have a obtained ‘U’ certificate, the story should promote Tamil language and culture, dialogue in the film should be in Tamil except in scenes which warrant use of other languages, and violence and obscenity should not find a place beyond the ‘tolerable limit’.
Papanasam, which released in theaters on Friday, has got a thumbs-up from all quarters, including us. Directed by Jeethu Joseph, the film stars Kamal Haasan, Gauthami, Nivedha Thomas and Baby Esther in the lead roles.