In fresh trouble for upcoming Malayalam film Oru Adaar Love, two Hyderabad-based petitioners have moved the Supreme Court objecting to a scene where lead actor Priya Prakash Varrier winks at someone. The petitioners said the act of winking is “blasphemous” in Islam.
Referring to verses in the Quran, the petitioners said the court should consider their plea before deciding on Varrier’s petition to quash criminal charges registered against her earlier for the wink, the Hindustan Times reported.
Varrier became an internet sensation for the scene from a song, Manikya Malaraaya Poovi, within hours of its release earlier this year. The movie is due for an Eid release in June. The film’s director, Omar Lulu, has told Scroll.in that the song’s title, Manikya Malaraya Poovi, means “a pearl flower that is very precious”. He added that the song is about the love story of the Prophet Mohammad and his first wife.
The petitioners also asked the court to remove the song, Manikya Malaraaya Poovi, from the film, saying the lyrics of the song were originally written in praise of Prophet Mohammed and his wife Khadeeja Beevi, The Indian Express reported.
“The 30-second clip shows a schoolgirl and schoolboy exchanging smiles, eyebrows wiggles and winks from across the way,” the petition said. “Winking itself is forbidden in Islam, and in a case where the act of winking is superimposed with a sacred song, written in the praise of Prophet Mohammed and his first wife…the same act becomes an act of blasphemy.”
The applicants said the visuals in the song were a “deliberate attempt to malign the image of Islam”, and added that it was “intended to outrage the religious feelings and beliefs of the Muslim community”.
In their plea in February, Varrier and the film’s makers had pointed out that the original song had been part of popular culture in Kerala since the 1970s, without any controversy. They said a song that had been “cherished by more than 1 crore Muslims” in Kerala cannot “suddenly offend” their sentiments.
The Supreme Court, at the time, stayed all pending first information reports filed against the song and the movie.
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