Coating violence with art
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Amar Kanwar’s The Lightning Testimonies stood out at the Daughters of Fire Film Festival
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LYRICAL Even while talking of violence
The closing film at the Daughters of Fire Film Festival held in Bangalore used the theme of sexual violence to narrate a region’s history and its failed tryst with protecting its women. The film, “The Lightning Testimonies”, directed by Amar Kanwar, is an artistic narrative of some of the major conflicts that have taken place in South Asia since Partition and across the decades, and the way in which women’s bodies have been used as sites of contestation by different groups in their efforts at competitively asserting notions of identity, nationality and religion — themes that Kanwar has addressed in his earlier films as well.
Unlike usual documentary films, where there is an emphasis on a narrative continuity, what Kanwar does is use a montage of conflict areas to tell a tale. While the theme of sexual violence binds the film, the emphasis really is on a visual eloquence, an almost poetic form of telling a tale beautifully rather than just documenting a story. Kanwar does this by using lengthy shots of objects that are not central to the narrative but embellish the film by providing it with a profound veneer of art.
Kanwar’s heavy dose of aestheticism while dealing with the issue of sexual violence almost distracts us sometimes from the seriousness of the theme.
The film begins with testimonies of the survivors of sexual violence that accompanied the larger religious violence during Partition, when more than 75,000 women were subjected to some form of sexual violence. Kanwar’s camera hardly intrudes into the personal space of the survivor and stays on contemporary vestiges of refugee camps while the survivors speak in the background.
His camera gently lingers for long moments on a black and white photograph of Mridula Sarabhai who was responsible for the rehabilitation of women abducted during Partition, and uses this moment to explain her role. Kanwar’s sombre voiceover provides a gravitas to the tale without exaggerating the pathos. From the gory Partition violence the film moves to Bangladesh and the testimonies of women who witnessed the excesses of the Pakistani soldiers during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. The beauty of Kashmir is juxtaposed with the grim tales of Kashmiri women who are stuck between the militants and the Indian military. From Kashmir to Gujarat where again, women were affected by the communal violence in 2002 is reflected in the grim story of Bilkis Bano whose family was killed and who was gang raped. Violence against Dalit women by people from upper castes in Khairlanji and across the country is also depicted in the film.
It is only when the film moves to the testimonies from the north eastern part of India does it look like it concedes too much space to the characters. The voiceover disappears and the characters seem to have an autonomous control of the narrative. While the film continues to remain beautiful, the form seems very different from the rest of the film. Of course, the segment of Sabitri Devi from Manipur is important and could form the basis of a documentary on its own.
The film festival, which consisted of films that reflected the nature of violence against women, was organised by Vimochana and the Asian Women’s Human Rights Council (AWHRC) with the Bangalore Film Society to provide a backdrop for the Indian Court of Women on Dowry and Related Forms of Violence which will be held later this month.
VIKHAR AHMED SAYEED
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