Returning the honour

Filmmaker Anwar Jamal explains what led him to return the National Award

November 13, 2015 06:58 pm | Updated 06:58 pm IST

Anwar Jamal Photo Shanker Chakravarty.

Anwar Jamal Photo Shanker Chakravarty.

In 1984, when innocent Sikhs were being lynched by mobs just like the recent case of Mohammed Akhlaq when he was bludgeoned to death at his home in NCR, filmmaker Anwar Jamal was roaming on the streets of Delhi where he was an eye witness to horrendous massacre of the minority community. He was appalled by the blood and gore but as a fledgling filmmaker he felt it was his duty to present an authentic picture to the public at large.

“After then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards, Anant Patwardhan decided to make a film ‘In Memory of Friends’. Since I was assistant director I used to report about the aftermath of that incident. From my home in Paharganj, I went across the city and was horrified to see blood on the streets. Looting was going on unfettered. Recently, Anupam Kher described that unfortunate period as riots. He is wrong; it was nothing but genocide,” says Anwar, who is among the two dozen members of the film fraternity who recently returned their National Awards due to the growing intolerance and apathy of those in the corridors of power.

Noting that the award has no meaning when a 50-year-old Muslim is killed on the mere suspicion that he was consuming beef, Anwar says it is a gesture to speak against injustice. “In society we face conflicts like the 1984 genocide of Sikhs , demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 and then the Bombay riots were orchestrated in 1993. Then issues like the Narmada river also bother us. As a filmmaker it is our duty to highlight the problem without being an activist. I am neither a member of Congress nor the BJP or the Left. It is independent idea or thought which makes us take up a project. Now that very idea is being questioned. If I say something regarding the Dadri incident then I am immediately branded as a Nehruvite or Leftist.”

Explaining the rationale for going back to 1980s, when thousands of Sikhs were brutally killed, to drive home his point, Anwar says recently he was asked why he was quiet during that period. “Those criticising me are unaware of my work. As filmmakers or writers we have every right to express our disappointment over an incident which affects the social fabric of our country. We have the freedom to think and express the turmoil in our hearts when we witness such incidents. After the Dadri incident, when writers started returning Sahitya Akademi awards the Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said, ‘Let them stop writing’. For the first time someone in the government is saying that stop your creativity. India is a free tolerant country with everyone having the right to express his thoughts whether through letters or on celluloid. In such a scenario I did not want to retain the National Award for my film The Call of the Bhagirathi .”

Another reason for discomfiture with the present situation is that he and other members of the film industry are being perceived from the narrow confines of religion. “Recently, when Shah Rukh Khan spoke about the growing intolerance, someone said that if Hindus stop watching his film then he would come on the road. Do we watch a film on the basis of religion of an actor whether it is Salman Khan or Ajay Devgn? Such type of thinking reflects a negative mindset and we do not come across such talks even on the streets.”

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