The cow vigilantes resorting to lynching innocent people have been posing a grave danger to destroy the cherished ideals of composite culture and its legacy to assimilate diverse cultural streams. Unmaad , a feature film made on a shoestring budget, screened at the Press Club of India recently mirrors in a creative way this deeply worrying aspect of contemporary India. Laced with romance and captivating songs, there are strong undercurrents that run throughout the film that reveal the collective will of the people to resist these dark forces.
Directed and written by debutant Shahid Kabeer, a graduate from the A.J.K. Institute of Mass Communication, Jamia Millia Islamia, he is essentially a theatre practitioner who is endeavouring the collective creative process of the theatrical art to film making, establishing camaraderie between the director, cast, crew and designers. In the process of making Unmaad , he discussed the theme of the film with his cast members, incorporating their suggestions into the script. Almost all members of the cast have been drawn from theatre
“This is our humble effort to produce a film to express social contradictions within the framework of popular cinema without compromising the truthful depiction of danger posed to our basic fundamental rights that are essential to preserve and enrich the plural vision of Indian democracy,” said Kabeer. The title of the film – Unmaad – appears to be inflammatory, evoking strong feelings of anger, hatred and revenge. The director has eschewed such interpretation, projecting the antagonistic forces with restraint and in an objective manner.
Mostly shot in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, it captures the plight of a Muslim family on the verge of starvation. The family was once well-to-do. The head of the family is Kallu, a butcher by profession. The atmosphere of intolerance has ruined him financially and his work has almost been destroyed by forcible closure of his shop. Starved and terrorised, Kallu Kasai goes to his Muslim friend to demand the money he owes to him. The friend expresses his inability to pay back. Ultimately, he goes to his Pundit friend for help. Moved by Kallu’s pitiable condition, the Brahmin gives him his ox for sale so that he could support his family with the money from the sale of the ox.
A group masquerading as cow vigilantes, notices a Muslim with an ox, they surround him. With lathis in their hands, they start beating him mercilessly and take the ox in their possession. They call police, handing Kallu to them on the fabricated charge that he was taking away a cow which he had stolen. The ox is shown as cow in the police record. There are many twists and turns to the narrative leading to several court scenes.
There is a sub-plot which deals with true love between a socially conscious journalist who happens to be a Hindu and a beautiful and sensitive Muslim girl. The director has treated romance beautifully, revealing the inner emotional force of the lovers and the purity of their hearts.
At another level, the sub-plot suggests that there is no place for true love in a society afflicted by ‘Unmaad’, frenzied communal violence. The film also illustrates the struggle of an honest and socially conscious journalist who is working for an editor interested only in sensational stories . The sub-plot is intricately becomes part of the main plot manifested towards the denouement with the journalist acquiring the power of catalyst to resolve the crisis.
Betrayed by friends
Imtiaz Ahmed as Kallu Nai framed in the case of stealing a cow creates a pathetic image of an honest man betrayed by friends and haunted by religious fanatics. Gyan Prakash as the Brahmin friend of Kallu Nai is torn between his loyalty to his friend Kallu and his duty to protect his family in the captivity of cow vigilantes who are blackmailing him to depose against Kallu.
Neeraj Giri as the young journalist plays an idealistic youth and a true lover who becomes a tragic hero in the cause of truth. Manisha Mondal as the young Muslim girl in love with the journalist creates a subtle and sensitive portrait that is marked by elegance and poetic intensity.
