Beyond the big Bollywood ‘Dangal’ for the box office moolah, some meaningful documentaries kept the discerning occupied through the year. Among those which impressed were “Placebo”, “Gods in Shackles”, “Daaravtha”, “Aoleang” and “The Man Who Dwarfed Mountains”. We asked three National Award winning filmmakers – Anwar Jamal, Umesh Aggarwal and Nandan Saxena to pick the best for us. Jamal suggests “Sayeed Mirza: The Lefitst Sufi”, Aggarwal says we should take time out for “The Insignificant Man” and Saxena finds “Cecilia” outstanding. Read on to know their reasons.
“Sayeed Mirza: The Leftist Sufi”by Kireet Khurana
Kireet Khurana’s “Sayeed Mirza: The Leftist Sufi” zeroes on all the places the much-feted filmmaker shot his films. It takes the viewer across Pune, Leh, Goa and Mumbai. The film basically tracks how Mirza became a leftist and then transformed to Sufi looking for peace and harmony. Considering today’s world which is enveloped in turmoil and disorder – Syria, Germany or India – looking for peace is a tall order. This comes out clearly in the film. I liked Khurana’s works both in terms of treatment and structure. Through this, the director has brought to fore the content while at the same time holding the audience attention.
Scene from “Sayeed Mirza: The Leftist Sufi”
The other documentary was by Kolkata-based director, Supriyo Sen “Our Grandparents Home”. This follows his earlier film “Way Back Home” which followed the journey of Sen’s parents to Dhaka, the place they hailed from. In “Our Grandparents Home” to be released in 2017, students and scholars on an exchange programme between India and Bangladesh locating and visiting places where their grandparents stayed before Partition. The film impressed me as it narrates history from a humanistic point of view instead of being factual. Also it brings to fore the present generation’s – which has not witnessed or suffered Partition – point of view on identity, nationality and home. A truly beautiful film.
Anwar Jamal
(Known for “Swaraj”, Anwar Jamal literally weaved magic this year with “Empire Of Threads”)
“An Insignificant Man” directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla
This 95-minute film tracks the formation and growth of Aam Aadmi Party. It is also a story of Arvind Kejriwal – who rose from an activist to whistle blower to a politician. The film dedicated almost equal amount of time to Yogendra Yadav, who is no longer a part of the Party. Shot over two years, the film presents contradictions, ironies, promises and hopes for a new, supposedly better India. I am sure directors had to source archival clips from many sources as during that period there was so much happening, simultaneously on many platforms.
For the directors, Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, this was their first docu-feature but they managed to come up with a gripping narrative. The film has all the elements of a political thriller. It encapsulates the journey of a movement that initially claimed to be non-political but culminated into a political party that finally, stunningly won Delhi elections in 2013. Though the film concludes in 2013, but viewers (especially living in Delhi, like me) were able to compare it with the reality of today. I was able to remember many promises that were made. Few were kept and others forgotten, many friends and collaborators that were dropped like hot potatoes. While watching the film, I was reminded of 500 new schools and colleges, a network of close circuit cameras that were promised. I was wondering if Delhi indeed became a better place to live compared to what it was before 2013. Or we have just handed over the baton to another party that essentially caters to its constituency.
Not many films give an opportunity to viewer to interpret the film, to watch it with his/her own lenses as “An Insignificant Man” does. Like a painting, every viewer will draw individual, personal and subjective conclusion. Film makers don’t decide the conclusion. That’s the strength of this film. The film was supported by a very effective crowd funding that makes it a relatively unbiased film, without catering to any interest group.
Umesh Aggarwal
(Known for hard hitting films like “The Whistle Blowers” and “Brokering News”, Umesh Aggarwal surprised many when he created “Jai Ho”, a moving portrait of A.R. Rahman.)
“Cecilia” by Pankaj Johar
“Cecilia” is the kind of film which stays with you. It grips you right from the start. It opens with a funeral. Done in a journalistic, first person narrative style, Pankaj Johar, the director and the director of photography had no easy job on his hands. The film is the story of Cecilia, the house-help at Pankaj’s home, whose teenage daughter is trafficked from her village and then found dead at her employer’s house at Faridabad taking the viewers deep into Cecilia’s trauma, her angst, anger and finally a compromise with her situation, as she is isolated within her own community.
20dmc Cecilia
As a film-maker wielding the camera, he has been able to thread the story together which is happening real-time. Pankaj’s style is unobtrusive. It is clear that Cecilia is taking all her decisions and the camera is just documenting her situation. It is commendable that Pankaj and his wife decided to support Cecilia in her search for justice. They take her to a lawyer, even go an extra step to visit her village many a times with her. While he is recording Cecilia, Pankaj is not afraid to reveal the vulnerability of his own situation and insecurities of his newly-wed wife. Threatening calls from Cecilia’s daughter’s employer’s side expose the murky side of child labour and the money game played to buy silence & compromise. Ultimately, Cecilia does not get any justice & dies heart-broken.
“Cecilia” brings the issue of human trafficking centre stage and questions the morality of an inequitable society. That Pankaj Johar could share the trauma of Cecilia without reducing the film to a melodramatic rendition, is commendable.
Kavita and Nandan Saxena
(Kavita Bahl and Nandan Saxena have highlighted real issues in films like “Cotton for my Shroud”, which captured the escalating suicides of cotton farmers in the Vidarbha region.)
