Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

`Andolan' well documented

Sumit Bhattacharjee

Sanjay Kak's `Water on Words', screened recently by the Vizag Film Society, depicts the remarkable struggle natives of Narmada Valley have been waging.

Visakhapatnam: "Shasan valo, sun lo - aaj hamare gaon mein hamara raj!" (Listen to us - you rulers - we control our villages).

The 80-minute documentary by Sanjay Kak on the Narmada Bachao Andolan starts with this slogan, signalling the defiance the people of that valley has been putting since last two decades.

Every moment of the film enlivens the remarkable struggle that the natives of Narmada Valley have been waging.

It highlights issues like displacement of thousands overnight, cultural genocide by a gargantuan series of 30 dams and the abject failure of the Government to resettle the displaced.

Non-violent stir

Aptly titled `Water on Words', Sanjay Kak explores the contemporary contours of that resistance, as the struggle faces its most critical reverse - a Supreme Court verdict - that would place the establishment's seal of approval on the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Shot over a period of two years, the film centres on the non-violent and democratic means of resistance.

It is a moving documentary of their defiance, courage and conviction. Its heroes are adivasis, farmers of the Nimad plains, fisher folk and middle class activists like the tenacious Medha Patkar. It exposes the connections between the movement of global capital, the collusion of administrative machinery and the exploitation of marginalised people. The film was recently screened at the Academic Staff College in Andhra University by the Vizag Film Society to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the andolan.

Sanjay Kak is an independent documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi. His earlier film `In the Forest Hangs a Bridge' was awarded the Golden Lotus for the best documentary at the National Film Fest in 1999.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Focussed approach must for fighting AIDS: Rosaiah
Welcome these winged wonders
Congress leaders defend seeking house sites
HIV-hit resent discrimination
`Andolan' well documented
Son-in-law's arrest: none above law, says Konijeti Rosaiah
Hit rock bottom
Career fair organised
AIDWA opposes move to hike LPG price
Gold rush
Around the City
In Visakhapatnam Today

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu