She wants to be a liberal face and the emerging leader of the group of anti-BJP forces’ mahagathbandhan for the 2019 general election. She is Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. This is not a sudden change to mold her image but a careful effort ever since she came back to power in Bengal for the second term with a huge mandate. She loves to project herself as the messiah of the social minorities, the dejected. In a way, she is the neo-left. 
 
It's rather ironic then that in her Bengal, a popular movie sequel Bhobishhoter Bhoot (Ghost of the Future) faces an unofficial ban and is taken off almost all theatres within 24 hours of its release.
 
Imagine that Lage Raho Munnabhai, the sequel to Munnabhai MBBS, is released, and people who queued up at the counters are being turned away on the very second day because the movie has been taken off the theatres. Bengal is facing the exact situation right now.
 
Bhobishhoter Bhoot director Anik Dutta is a vocal critic of Mamata. Just last November, during the Kolkata Film Festival, he had questioned the endless number of Mamata cut-outs in the premises of Nandan where Kolkata famously celebrates cinema.
 

 
So, which Mamata is the real Mamata? Let's turn the clock back to November 2017. The entire northern and western India went up in arms against Sanjay Leela Bhansali for what they saw as a mockery of the Rajput culture in the portrayal of Rani Padmavati. A fringe group Karni Sena, emboldened by mass support, had announced Rs 1 crore for the head of Deepika Padukone! Many states announced they would not allow the movie to be shown for fear of an uncontrollable law-and-order situation. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was among the first to question that madness. In a statement that was then very well received, she alleged, “The Padmavati (original name of the film) controversy is not only unfortunate but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves. We condemn this super emergency.” She went further: “All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice".
 
Cut to February 2019, her Bengal government does exactly what she had called a “super emergency” in November 2019. 
 

 
Speaking to MyNation, director Anik Dutta expressed his frustration, saying, “The film was released in as many as 44 theatres across Kolkata and was running successfully. It received a very good response on the first day. However, since the next morning, it has been removed citing no valid reasons. When we came to know about the fact, the crew members went to various multiplexes and halls and enquired about the issue. None of them came out with a proper explanation”.
 
The film crew went live from a popular movie multiplex that showed police personnel indulging in a war of words with the film crew that alleged the cops were ensuring the movie is pulled off the screens.
 
“According to legal experts, no film can be banned without a valid court order if it has got the green signal from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The crew members of Bhobishyoter Bhoot went to the South City Mall multiplex on Saturday evening to enquire why the film was not being screened at the hall. They met the distributor on the matter, too. However, the person concerned at the South City multiplex could not give us a proper answer,” the director added.
 

 
Bengali film legend, actor Soumitra Chatterjee voiced his protest, amid the deafening silence. He wrote, “I strongly condemn such fascist policy even if they stay undercover.”
 
This is not the first time Banerjee blocked something she didn't agree to or like. Way back in 2012, her government had unleashed a clampdown on screening of a film Teen Konna for portraying the infamous Park Street rape, which the chief minister had branded as 'shajano ghatona' (staged incident). 
 
In December 2013, a serial Duhsahabas, based on a script written by controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, wasn't allowed to be telecast on a popular Bengali channel under pressure of Islamists.
 
As 2019 general election nears and the country warms up to elect its leader, the voters of Bengal must decide whether to support Mamata Banerjee, the liberal, or Mamata Banerjee, the autocrat.
 
With inputs from Soudhriti Bhabani