‘Film Is About A Maulana Misinterpreting Quran’. What Bombay High Court Said While Giving Respite To Makers Of ‘Hamare Baarah’

On 18 June, the Bombay High Court gave makers of the film Hamare Baarah a respite by saying that they did not find anything objectionable in it.

A bench of justices B P Colabawalla and Firdosh Pooniwalla said they watched the film and found that it is about a maulana (Islamic cleric) misinterpreting the Quran.

“The movie has a maulana misinterpreting the Quran and in fact one Muslim man objects to the same in the scene. So, this shows that people should apply their mind and not blindly follow such maulanas,” the judges said, as quoted by various reports.

The judges said they found nothing objectionable against the Quran or the Muslim community in the film. They also said that the petitioners had made serious allegations against the film without watching it.

However, the court suggested a scene, where the main character, who is Muslim and threatening to kill his daughter in the name of god, be dropped. The court noted that removing this line would not cause many hindrance to the creative freedom of the maker.

The film was initially scheduled for a 7 June release. However, it was stayed by the Bombay High Court following a petition that it showed the Muslim texts and the community in a derogatory light.

The high court later allowed its release on 14 June after deletion of two dialogues, following which the petitioner reached the Supreme Court. The apex court stayed the film’s release till the high court disposed of the petition.

Yesterday, while disposing of the petition, the high court responded to the plea that the movie misinterprets religious verses in the Quran, by saying that the theme of the film is a man misinterpreting verses of Quran to do a social wrong. "That is the long and short of the movie," said Justice Colabawalla.

The new release date of the film is still unknown.