When the lights dim in a cinema hall, audiences prepare to willingly surrender to a story. The darkness invites us to enter a realm of imagination, argument, truth. But when the State imposes darkness on the film itself, we are denied both the experience and the argument.

The abrupt removal of Satluj from the ZEE5 OTT platform barely 48 hours after its release is a reminder of how fragile creative freedom has become in contemporary India. It raises a disturbing question: who gets to decide which parts of our collective past we, as citizens, are allowed to revisit?

Directed by Honey Trehan and starring Diljit Dosanjh, Satluj (earlier titled Punjab ’95) is based on the life of Jaswant Singh Khalra, the human rights activist who investigated allegations of illegal killings and secret cremations during Punjab’s violent insurgency. Khalra publicly referred to around 25,000 alleged illegal cremations, a figure that remains contested.

Various official inquiries and independent researchers have cited significantly lower numbers, and the exact scale continues to be debated. The film reflects Khalra’s claims, making them central to the storyline rather than presenting them as judicially established fact.

What is incontrovertible is Khalra’s own fate. He was abducted and murdered in 1995, and several Punjab Police personnel were eventually convicted for the crime. His killing became one of the most powerful symbols of the excesses committed during Punjab’s troubled years.

During the legal proceedings over the film, one judge reportedly observed, “There’s no point in running away from the past. Unless you counter your past, you’ll never have a better future.”

Unfortunately, the decision to takedown Satluj suggests exactly the opposite instinct — that difficult memories are better expunged than examined.

The film’s journey is in itself a commentary on censorship. Submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC)........

© National Herald