November 26, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 27, 1429

PANAJI (India), Nov 25: Hardline Hindu nationalists have succeeded in getting a documentary by a controversial artist taken off the schedule at India’s most prestigious film festival, organisers said on Tuesday.

Two right-wing groups protested against M.F. Husain’s

1967 film “Through the Eyes of a Painter”, which had been due to be shown on Tuesday at the International Film Festival of India in the resort state of Goa.

“The screening has been deferred for the time being as there were some objections to it,” festival director S.M. Khan said.

The Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Jananagruti (HJS) movements submitted a formal complaint to organisers and Goa’s chief minister Digamber Kamat on Saturday, claiming it was inappropriate to show Husain’s work.

Maqbool Fida Husain, 93, is one of India’s best-known artists and has even been referred to as the country’s Picasso.

But he became embroiled in controversy in the mid-1990s over his paintings of nude Hindu deities that led to court cases, attacks on his house and death threats.

The artist lives in voluntary exile in London and Dubai.

Political sources said Kamat asked organisers to defer the screening “as it might create law and order problems in the state”.

Some 60 foreign-language films and 80 Indian films are to be shown before the 39th annual festival ends on Dec 2.—AFP