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Solitary quest

As the politics of hate stalks the planet, Rakesh Sharma continues to document its insidious path. ZIYA US SALAM catches up with the filmmaker still in search of a "Final Solution"

NO STRINGS ATTACHED Rakesh Sharma is working on a film about the rise of the Right Photo: Anu Pushkarna

Why must a man develop attachment when detachment is the only way to peace? Ask Rakesh Sharma, who a few years ago made Final Solution, a three-hour documentary on the Gujarat genocide. Ever since, the man has been visiting Naroda Patiya, Ahmedabad and other sites of the gruesome hate violence. He even toyed with the idea of depicting the plight of child victims of violence. But could not. There was a certain attachment that made a dispassionate analysis almost impossible.

Now, Sharma is paying the price for that bond. Yet again. He has been advised by none other than Shyam Benegal, whom he has assisted in many films, to give up documentary filmmaking and take to feature films. "I would like to move to a simpler narrative shortly, but at the moment I cannot detach myself from a couple of documentaries I am doing," says Rakesh Sharma, sitting on the lawns of The Imperial hotel in New Delhi. It is hide-and-seek time for the sun, and Sharma, unaccustomed to the cold, finds the nip quite uncomforting. But that is only a minor hassle for a man who has been at the receiving end of a system that values conformity, denounces those who ask uncomfortable questions.

Now working on a documentary on multi-country resurgence of the right wing, he recalls his painful experience in the U.S. recently. "I was shooting in New York, recording the pictures of the city from the eyes of a taxi driver. He was from Africa and had spent 25 years in the U.S., and we were talking of changes post 9/11. We were stopped by a detective in Manhattan. I was manhandled and though a probe was ordered, nothing much has come of it, because the Civilian Complaint Revenue Board has no punitive powers. I think my beard, my colour and camera went against me. Though people deny racial profiling in the U.S., it is very much there."

Incidentally, Sharma was told to obtain insurance worth millions of dollars for a film whose budget is not much above a few lakhs! "I was shooting with a tiny hand-held camera like a tourist, not endangering vehicular or pedestrian traffic. I find this action an infringement of privacy and a violation of my right to free speech."

Incidentally, Sharma's film talks of a unipolar world, where political formulation is no longer agitating to make life better for the common man. The world is moving away from the concept of a welfare state, he states. And governments across the world are raising new phantoms or bogeys to justify the politics of intolerance governing modern-day discourse.

"I have a loose hypothesis for this film ready. But it will take about two more years to be completed. I intend to talk in detail about a world where the term globalisation is nothing but a misnomer, a euphemism for Americanisation. I am not accepting funds from any organisation as it invariably comes with strings attached."

Mixed marriages

If Sharma is fighting the world with the multi-country documentary, he is not at peace at home either. Back in India, he has been shooting in Mumbai, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana for a documentary of cross-religion marriages that he intends to wrap up by the end of the year. "In Final Solution I talked more of the State abetment to crime and not just a degree of complicity. The guilty roamed the streets with perfect impunity. Now, this documentary takes the next step. It talks of those couples where Hindu girls have married boys from another religion. There is a new hardening of attitudes to such marriages. The might of the State is being used to harass the boys in these cases. For instance, I have talked of a case of Rima and Anthony of Naroda Patiya, where the girl was abducted by some Right wing elements but managed to escape. I have talked of another couple from Mumbai where the girl paid the price for marriage with her death under questionable circumstances."

And it has not been smooth sailing for Sharma ever since he was heckled at the screening of Final Solution. The film was first banned, then cleared by the Censors. It took 80 international film festivals and 20 international awards for the film to get any recognition at home when it won the Apsara Award in Mumbai recently. "Yes, my reputation often precedes me. But thanks to the film, people also know that I have not come looking for a sensational sound byte. And back in the film industry, people like Nandita Das, Rahul Bose, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Aparna Sen, Karan Johar, etc., have been fully supportive of my struggle. Now, I hope all the adversity is behind us and some distributors have shown interest in VCD rights and distribution of the film. Now, I have recovered my costs for it."

Reason enough for some more attachment?

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