The Free Press Journal is a Mumbai-based daily newspaper founded by a Malayali, S. Sadanand. At one time, the staff cartoonist was the founder of the Shiv Sena, the late Bal Thackeray. Three years before starting the paper, Sadanand founded India's first Indian-owned news agency, Free Press of India Agency.

Sadanand would have turned in his grave after reading the headline of the paper's lead story a week ago. The report dealt with the Hema Committee report that the Kerala government had released the day before. The headline was striking: "Fiendish Aattam Behind the Scenes."

In Malayalam, "Aattam" means "dance," which is one of the most delightful art forms. Kerala has its own dance forms, such as Kathakali and Mohiniyattam, which are gaining popularity outside the land of coconuts. The FPJ editor who wrote the headline was playing on the word "Aattam", the title of a Malayalam movie that won three national film awards a week earlier.

Anyone familiar with cinema knows that for every person who acts in a movie, multiple people work behind the scenes. The headline suggested that behind the scenes of Mollywood, there is a fiendish group with an octopus-like grip on the industry.

The much-acclaimed "Aattam" film deals with sexual harassment in a theatre group with 12 men and one female actor. One of them gropes her while she is fast asleep and then runs away. Although they are all close to the victim, when it comes to seeking justice, each one is influenced by their own petty interests. As a result, the perpetrator escapes punishment, and nobody wants to know who committed the shameless act. After watching the movie, I concluded that everyone was guilty of being selfish. None of them cared about the indignity she suffered.

The Hema Committee originated from a macabre incident in Kerala. One of the top actors, who was in a position to challenge the supremacy of the two superstars of Malayalam cinema, wanted to "punish" an actor whom he believed had tipped off his wife about his affair with another actor.

This actor had a streak of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who engaged an assassin to kill former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He also wanted photographic evidence. A suicide bomber was sent to Sriperumbudur to kill Gandhi, and the gang had engaged a local photographer to capture the killing. However, the plan backfired as the camera and other details helped the police conclude that Prabhakaran was the mastermind. The one-eyed man pulling the strings from behind the curtain was caught.

In this case, the actor wanted to humiliate the woman and take videos and pictures of her in an undressed state. The incident caused a sensation as the actor who was to be humiliated was about to get married. The alleged mastermind was arrested, and the case has been ongoing in court. Given his financial power, many doubt whether justice will ever be served.

One incident showcases the man's influence. A senior police officer in Kerala, who is popular for narrating police cases she and her colleagues handled, went to the jail and provided the actor with better comforts. She herself narrated this, shocking people like this writer. It was astonishing that she was not concerned about the many undertrials and innocents who happen to be in jail due to, as a Malayalam expression goes, their destiny.

Around that time, a group of women film stars formed the Women's Collective in Cinema (WCC) to express their resentment against the rampant exploitation in the Malayalam film industry. It was a bold attempt by these women to clean the Augean stables of Mollywood. In ancient Greece, King Augeas' stables, which housed a large herd of cattle, had not been cleaned for years. Hercules was ordered to clean these filthy stalls in one day, which he did by diverting the course of two rivers to flow through the stables. The WCC members expected the Kerala government to take similarly decisive action.

The Pinarayi Vijayan government received a memorandum from the WCC and decided to form a three-member committee to investigate the serious allegations against the film industry. It is well known that forming commissions and committees of inquiry is often a tactic to quell public outrage. In hindsight, it appears the government had no other intention in mind, or it would have acted differently.

The government appointed a former judge of the Kerala High Court, Justice K Hema, as the chairperson, and veteran actor and former MP Sharada, along with retired IAS officer KB Valsalakumari, as members. The committee was provided with all the necessary facilities to carry out its duties. Although Sharada is not a Malayali but a Telugu, her roles in films like Thulabharam and Swayamvaram helped her establish a foothold in the Malayalam film industry. No cinema enthusiast saw her as a non-Malayali.

Her presence on the committee was a morale booster for all those who wanted to testify before it. Women were not hesitant to appear before the committee and share their individual opinions on the industry's practices. The committee did an excellent job, and the presence of the judge and IAS officer resulted in a report that is both thorough and readable. Ordinarily, the government should have laid it on the table of the Assembly or published it so that the public could read it.

In some cases, the government does not publish a report before implementing some of the key recommendations so that, when the report is finally released, it is accompanied by an action-taken report. However, in this case, the report was kept under lock and key ever since it was submitted. Many people had to go to court and use the Right to Information Act to gain access to it. After five long years, the report was finally published, with copies first given to eight people who sought it under the RTI Act.

This was the first time that a government studied matters pertaining to the film industry anywhere in the world. The Pinarayi government can certainly take credit for that, but the credit should end there. The report has been the subject of intense discussion both within and outside the state, and rightly so, as the film industry behaves in much the same way everywhere, even if there may not be a mafia as entrenched as the one in Kerala.

The opening lines of a book or report are crucial, as they set the tone for the reader to continue to the end. My all-time favourite opening line is Kumaran Asan's "Ha, pushpame!" (Hey, Flower!). In one expression, the poet captures the plight of the Veena Poovu (The Fallen Flower).

If you ask me which is my favourite opening line in English literature, it is from Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities." Let me quote: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

I do not know who drafted the Hema Committee report, but whoever it was, the opening lines are remarkable: "The sky is full of mysteries; with the twinkling stars and the beautiful moon. But scientific investigation revealed that stars do not twinkle, nor does the moon look beautiful. The study, therefore, cautions: 'Do not trust what you see, even salt looks like sugar.'

"As the study progressed into the issues faced by women in the film industry, it started revealing that the glamour of the industry is just exterior glitter, but hovering over it are dark clouds of distress and endured agony, kept hidden from the outside world. We would listen to various sobbing stories of despair not only from women but from men too, and shockingly, they are silenced in the industry. Their anguish and agony die within the industry, unable to be addressed, with no forum to seek solutions, though their problems are legion."

In other words, it was against this backdrop that the committee came into being, studied the issue, and submitted its report. This was all the more reason for the government to have acted on the report immediately. The report has now been published, but some pages containing certain names were deleted. There is no convincing explanation as to why these pages were removed. It is absurd to presume that a former Justice of the High Court did not know the laws of the land.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, there is a line: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. That one may smile and smile and be a villain." The report's findings are that women are exploited in the industry. The casting couch is not just a notion but a reality. Women are forced to compromise to get assignments. All the WCC members were denied acting roles after they supported the #MeToo movement.

However, there is a strange case of a woman who, after supporting the WCC, allegedly deposed before the Hema Committee that there was no sexual harassment in the film industry. Incidentally, this woman has been doing exceedingly well in the last few years; her assets have grown by leaps and bounds.

Women are forced to repeat kissing and other intimate scenes for the voyeuristic pleasure it gives to men. The reason for such repetitive shooting is always that the take wasn't perfect. They have to lie longer with men for bed scenes, etc. In "Swayamvaram", Sharada gets midnight knocks on her door. The baby she held in her arms close to her chest is today India's Ambassador S Kumaran.

She would have understood why the doors of the women actors were knocked. Now, let me ask a simple question: can you name one industry where a mother accompanies her daughter to work? Why does this happen in this industry?

Most Malayalam films show their indebtedness to the fans' associations of two actors. Have you ever heard of a poet publishing a book and mentioning their indebtedness to other poets? Or, for that matter, does an author express thanks to fellow authors? Why, then, are film producers and directors compelled to thank the mega-stars? They know these stars have the power to destroy a newcomer, whether in acting or direction.

I have never seen Jeetendra or Shah Rukh Khan thanking Amitabh Bachchan in their films. This is clear evidence of the mafia that controls the Malayalam film industry. The mega-stars have become so old that they cannot walk briskly, but they dye their hair or use wigs to enable them to act opposite heroines who could theoretically be their granddaughters. This trend highlights the ills of the industry.

How else does a driver become the richest film producer in just over a decade? The government should introduce a law that specifically addresses the industry since the existing five cinematographic laws are incapable of tackling the issues. Every producer should be held directly responsible for the safety and protection of women working for them. They should establish a sexual harassment committee where women can lodge complaints, and if the harassment is physical, the committee should be obligated to report it to the police immediately. What is needed is greater transparency in the industry. If a producer cannot provide proper washrooms for women, he should be sent to jail. There should be zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Why should an actor be paid millions of rupees for his role? Does he pay full taxes? Also, why should we be so deferential to an actor when we don't show the same respect to a good postman, a delivery person, or an exemplary teacher? Yes, reforms are necessary at all levels.