Author: Our Special correspondent
Publication: BJP Today
Date: December 1-15, 2001
"Those who selected such a film
for exhibition are idiots", thundeted Biman Basu, top leader of the ruling
party of West Bengal after two shows of "Taurus" at the Kolkata Film Festival
raised the hackles among Leftist" intellectuals" who even took to the streets
against this film.
The reason for the indignation of
the "progressive and liberal intellectuals" of Kolkata is "Taurus" is a
film on the last days of Lenin the founder of the now-defuct Soviet Union,
which shows that he had a warped mind was nearly incapacitated in his later
years and had a mistress besides visting brothels in his earlier years.
The interesting part of this story
is that the film has been made not in Hollywood but by a Russian film maner
Alexander Sokurov. Moreover, Leonid Mozgovoi, who played the role of V.
L. Lenin in "Taurus" said that the film was based on facts. Mozgovoi, who
was in Kolkata for a few days, had even h Id a news conference to assure
the Left Front the film was a creation of art based on historical facts.
But the Talibanistic mindset of
the Communists could not digest this explanation and the single copy of
the film was promptly sent away to London for screening at a film festival
there, even though tickets were sold for one more show at Kolkata.
Interestingly, Chief Minister Buddhadev
Bhattacharya, who is also the Minister in charge of Information, had seen
this film but did not make any comments. He, however, told a delegations
of the labour and youth wings of the ruling party that he would find out
how such a film could get into the festival. Meanwhile, Mr. Jyoti Basu
even questioned the wisdom of anyone making" such a film".
The Talibanised communists must
be happy now that "Taurus" is out of India, but the hard fact is Communism
itself is more or less out of this country.
By the way, here is a suggestion
for Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, who is anchoring the programme Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Why not, Mr. Bachchan, include the question if there is a Lenin statue
in Delhi and if so where precisely it is situated. The four options could
be: A. K. Gopalan House, Ajoy Bhavan, Russian Embassy, Chinese Embassy.
A fifth option may also be given, JNU, as a concession to the "noted historians"
of the JNU brand of Delhi. Mr. Bachchan, you need not be afraid. You will
not be made to sign the cheque for a crore of rupees.
Lenin's mummified body is still
preserved in Moscow, in an underground chamber outside the Kremlin walls.
At one time, two to three - kilometer ling queues could be seen any day
made by people who wanted to Performa a "Lenin Vandana" ceremony, after
the marriage of young communists or by parents of newly - born children
for seeking the "blessings" of the "Lenin Baba" for their children. Now,
according to a media person who was in Moscow in connection with Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Moscow visit, you can now whizz past the
Lenin's mummy in just about five minutes.
