Aligarh: The story of life and death of Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras

Aligarh, the upcoming movie based on the life, and death, of Aligarh Muslim University professor Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, has been in news recently over the director Hansal Mehta expressing disappointment over the A rating that the censor board has given to the movie.

However, censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani has termed this as a cheap way to promote the movie, saying that a movie based on homosexuality was bound to be given an Adult rating.

Talking about the movie, it gives us a glimpse of the life of Dr. Siras, who was suspended from his job as a professor of Marathi at AMU, because of his sexual orientation.

After winning the case against the University, Siras died in suspicious circumstances. While a National Award winning actor Manoj Bajpai plays the role of Siras, another national award winning actor Rajkummar Rao plays a journalist who takes it upon himself to bring the case into the eyes of everyone.

Talking of Dr. Siras, the Marathi Doctorate became a professor at AMU in 1998. Married for almost 20 years, Siras ended up getting divorced after a long separation.

It was in 2010 that two men forced their way into Siras' house and caught him having consensual sex with another man, a rickshaw puller. After this, he was suspended by AMU, which claimed "gross misconduct'' on his part. He filed a case in the Allahabad High Court on 1 April 2010, which he went on to win because of the involvement of students in the case, and the fact that homosexuality was not a crime in India back then.

However, on 7 April 2010, Siras died suspiciously in his apartment, a day before he was to get the official letter to revoke his suspension and get back his job.

Prima facia, the case was thought to be that of a suicide, but post-mortem reports showed some traces of poison in his body, because of which six people were arrested, and three journalists and four AMU officials were thought to be behind the crime.

However, lack of evidence forced the police to shut down the case.

The plot looks interesting enough for a Bollywood movie, and the acting caliber of both Bajpai and Rao make it a must watch. The movie has been screened at various international film festivals, winning accolades all over.

Adult rating or not, the movie proves the fact that Indian cinema is finally changing, and this time, for good.

Catch the trailer here.

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