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Against mindless violence
Shonali Bose.
`AMU,' WHICH was premiered in Thiruvananthapuram today, is a powerful depiction of the trauma undergone by victims of the anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi in 1984. The multilingual film, screened for a packed audience at Kairali theatre, raises uncomfortable questions that have been left unanswered for the last 20 years.
Truth unravelled
The anguish and anger of the riot victims have been portrayed through the story of a 21-year-old Indian American woman who stumbles upon the horrific truth, which had been hidden from her, on a visit to her family in India. Kaju, played by Konkana Sen, travels back in time to rediscover the genocide that had consumed her family and changed her life forever.
Brinda Karat makes her debut on the silver screen as Kaju's mother. Subhashini Ali puts in a cameo appearance as a social worker.
Kaju's transformation into `Amrita' (called Amu), is marked by many trials and tribulations. Her journey into the past is an attempt to lift the shroud of silence that has concealed the guilty and helped them remain in the public domain. `Amu' concludes with a train drawing into a station and an announcement on the riots in Godhra.
The debutant director of the film, Shonali Bose, who happens to be Brinda Karat's niece, says: "The killers of the riots have not been punished and this is what led to the communal riots elsewhere in the country. Godhra, Mumbai ... The same mindless violence against a community was repeated in Mumbai and Gujarat. The parties in power were different."
"A lot has been written about and films have been made on the Mumbai and Gujarat riots. But it is as if the anti-Sikh riots never took place. An attempt, covert or otherwise, seems to have been made to erase this from public memory."
Against violence
Out of this pain was born `Amu.' "I was a student in Miranda House in Delhi. We had formed a group to help the victims. I worked with them and helped them put the pieces of their lives together. All over Delhi, horrified residents came forward to protect their neighbours. There was no official help at all. But for a few stray incidents, the violence was orchestrated. The State seemed to be turning against the very people it was supposed to protect. It was a collapse of the State and its machinery," Shonali says.
She points out that nine commissions of inquiry failed to pinpoint the guilty or punish them. Although the Film Certification Board insisted on five "political cuts," the film has not yet been certified, she says. "One of the protagonists in the film says: "Only two people were punished - the killers of Indira Gandhi." That dialogue was removed. I accepted the cuts. The widows silently moving their lips are an indictment of the establishment.
There is no violence, no sex or bedroom scenes, yet the film was given `A' certificate. One of the members of the Censor Board had said: "Why bring up a history which is best buried and forgotten?" The film looks back in anger at the mind-numbing violence and grief; the director makes an attempt to address the search for identity that confronts second-generation Indian Americans in the United States.
"There is a sense of `not belonging' that plagues the second generation Indian diaspora in the U.S. These youngsters feel the need to explore their roots to find out who they are," she explains.
`Amu' is also being released as a book by Penguin India.
By Saraswathy Nagarajan
Photo: S. Gopakumar
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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