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Magazine
INDIA AT 61: WHAT DOES FREEDOM MEAN TO YOU?
Telling it as it is
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As India celebrates 61 years of Independence, have institutions of democracy taken root and work as they are supposed to? How has our tryst with destiny turned out in terms of ground realities for one billion Indians? Some prominent figures from public life tell us what we have got right and what we have not in the on-going making of a nation.
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“Indian democracy is alive and well because today a filmmaker has the freedom to portray realities as they are.” MAHESH BHATT, filmmaker
PHOTO: AP
LONG WAY TO GO FOR A YOUNG DEMOCRACY.
“Dhoka diya is mulk ne, hum mussalmanon ko. Phichale saath salon mein hamari halat bad se badtar ho gai hai,” says a frail old Muslim man who is deposing before a fact-finding team, regarding the brutal killing of his son by the police. The team has come from New Delhi to Srinagar to study police brutality in the State. The Commission assures him that the evil doers will be brought to book, and the secular value system of India will be upheld. The old man walks away with at least some shreds of hope in his heart. If you are reading this, perhaps you would have the same hope in your heart, but that would be misplaced totally. Because this incident happened not in real life, but on screen, in my film “Dhoka”, which unflinchingly looked at the issue of State terrorism as being the fountainhead of rising insurgency in the country today.
When this scene was played out in a preview hall in New Delhi, to an audience which consisted of the Urdu language journalists and members of Parliament belonging to the Muslim community, the journalists rose up and berated the members of Parliament, saying that while this is being said on the screen, it needs to be stated in no uncertain terms in the House of Parliament. While the MPs went on the defensive mode as they were being attacked, it made me reflect that at least our Democracy, if nothing else, has matured if I, as a filmmaker, am able to portray the ground reality in my films, without being muzzled.
Through the prism of films
When I look through the prism of Indian cinema I find a number of glorious examples of filmmakers expressing the woes of the people in their own unique ways. And this number is only growing. But what the current crop of filmmakers enjoy is something which our predecessors and we ourselves have struggled to achieve for a very long time! If Rahul Dholakia can make a brave film like “Parzania”, depicting the horrors of Gujarat, he must thank a Shyam Benegal, a Shekhar Kapoor, a Govind Nihalani and myself, for making films like “Ankur”, “Bandit Queen”, “Akrosh”, and “Zakhm”. These films all locked horns with the establishment and earned us filmmakers for generations to come the right to say things as they are. We, in our turn, need to look back and thank makers such as Mehboob Khan for making “Mother India”, Bimal Roy for making “Sujata”, and for the huge body of work of Satyajit Ray, who gave the Indian film the “Indianness” that it lacked in those times. The 21st century today is truly democratic when looked at through the prism of cinema because if you have escapist fare like a “Partner” and a “Welcome”, you also have a thought provoking “Rang De Basanti” and a “Taare Zameen Par”. There is something for everybody and each one is being allowed to sing his own song.
The flame of Democracy is a flame that is kept alive by those who search for their own authentic voice, and having spoken, pass it on to the next one waiting to be heard. India may be miles away in terms of its infrastructure but the spirit of Indian Democracy burns more brightly than ever in our hearts.
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