PATIALA: Punjabi film ' Kaum De Heere ' (Diamonds of the Community), which portrays the lives of former prime minister Indira Gandhi 's assassins and is finally set for release this Friday, has caused a political storm even before it comes up on the big screen. The film is based on the lives of Beant Singh, Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh.

Against the backdrop of Intelligence Bureau alerts warning of violence if the film is released and the Punjab Youth Congress announcing protests across the state on the day of its release, the film's writer-director Ravinder Ravi on Monday said it was not wrong to show events that took place 30 years ago.

"Allegations that we want to create a law and order problem by showing what happened 30 years ago are meaningless," Ravi told TOI. "We are just reproducing what has been documented. What's wrong in bringing historical incidents before the public after 30 years? If 'Tamas', based on the 1947 carnage and the exodus of Sikh and Hindu families, could be telecast in the 1980s, why can't 'Kaum De Heere' be screened 30 years after Indira's killing."

Ravi said there was no deviation in the film's screenplay from the proceedings of the case titled 'Bhai Kehar Singh vs Delhi state and others', the confession statements of Beant, Kehar, Satwant and Beant's wife Bimal Kaur Khalsa, and the findings of the Justice Thakkar Commission (formed after Indira's assassination).

But the Congress sees the film as an attempt to eulogize Indira's killers. Punjab Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said they had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a countrywide ban on the release of the film. "The movie not only justifies the killing of the former PM, but is also an attempt to revive terrorism in Punjab," said Chaudhary. "We hope the PM will intervene in the issue. Otherwise, we would not allow the film to be released in Punjab."

Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, son of Beant, had told TOI last week that the film was the first effort in the past 30 years to show how Indira's killing was justified. "The movie brings to fore the pain which Indira's bodyguards felt during their visit to the Golden Temple after Operation Blue Star ," he said.

Beant, along with Satwant, had killed Indira on October 31, 1984. While Beant was gunned down by other bodyguards, Satwant was handed out the capital punishment later.