Tag: Reason film

Kerala High Court Overrules Centre, Allows Festival to Screen Patwardhan’s ‘Reason’

The I&B ministry denied permission for the documentary’s screening, saying it could lead to a “law and order issue”.

New Delhi: The Kerala high court overruled the Centre’s objections to the screening of Anand Patwardhan’s documentary film Vivek (Reason) at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival that is currently underway in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting denied permission for the film – whoch looks into the murders of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, among others – to be screened at the festival. The ministry said the screening could cause a “law and order issue”.

The Kerala HC held that this apprehension was not valid. The guidelines framed by the I&B ministry in this regard allow the the screening of the documentary, it said. However, Justice Shaji P. Chaly, who passed the order, clarified that the film cannot be screened anywhere else.

The court was dealing with a petition filed by the festival organiser Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, against the Centre’s refusal to grant permission for the screening. Patwardhan was the second petitioner in the case.

The four-hour film begins by looking into the murders of Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, and the role of the Sanatan Sanstha in spreading right-wing extremist violence. It then goes on to Dalit protests and the rise of Dalit leaders in recent years, and ends in Dadri, Mohammad Akhlaq’s village.

The film has won a number of awards across the world, including the award for the Best Feature-Length Documentary at the 31st International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam.

According to The Hindu, the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy had postponed the screening of Reason from June 24 till the last day of the event (June 26), hoping that permission may be granted by then.

Festival director Kamal told the New Indian Express that since the film is already available on YouTube and has been viewed many times, it does not make sense for the Centre to deny permission straight off the bat.

The ministry had claimed in its response to the festival organisers that screening Reason could lead to a “law and order issue”.

Also read: Anand Patwardhan’s ‘Reason’ Is Both Uncomfortable and Reassuring

Earlier too, the I&B ministry had delayed the screening by asking for a more “detailed synopsis”. “While exemption was provided to every other film being screened here, they have asked for more details on just this one. We have sent a detailed appeal two days back. This has effectively delayed the screening of the film. The academy is exploring legal options currently,” one of the organisers told The Hindu.

Films being screened at festivals do not require Censor Board certification, but do need to be cleared by the Central I&B ministry before they can be shown. Filmmakers and festival organisers have alleged in the past as well that the ministry has misused this guideline to stop screenings of films they may not agree with.

In February 2018, a documentary on artists in the Kashmir Valley was denied permission to be screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival at the very last minute – after an audience had already collected to watch it. In 2017, a number of jury members of the International Film Festival of India in Goa resigned after the I&B ministry dropped two films they had selected from the list of films to be screened. In 2015, a documentary produced by

Anand Patwardhan’s ‘Reason’ Is Both Uncomfortable and Reassuring

The documentary sharpens our arguments against the forces that are determined to create fissures in India’s social landscape.

This article was first published on April 11, 2019, and is being republished in the light of I&B ministry stalling the screening of the documentary at a Kerala festival.

It was a dreary weekend afternoon when I went to watch the screening of Anand Patwardhan’s four-hour-long documentary, Reason (Vivek in Hindi). The expectation from Patwardhan’s movies is always that facts will be narrated in a way that finally meanders into hope. His depictions – whether in Ram ke Naam or War and Peace – are rooted in reality and people-centric, challenging common social beliefs and consumerist ideas that have come to plague us.

Reason defied my expectations.

It isn’t just an Anand Patwardhan film. It is a lesson in the blood-laden contemporary history of India’s majoritarian metamorphosis. The film is etched with the filmmakers signature poignancy and hope, and is also soul-stirring experience which revolved around the process of manufacturing a Hindu rashtra. Some of the facts which unfold are not just baffling, but outright dangerous. To be honest, Reason does not feel like a documentary– it is more like a book, a classic which needs to be read in one sitting.

The documentary, which has eight chapters, opens with the life (and death) of Narender Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, both of whom were murdered for promoting rationality, equality and justice. In its essence, Reason is a tribute to their martyrdom. In depicting the struggles of the two rationalists, the documentary captures the spirit of resistance. It reveals how the Sanatan Sanstha, the Goa-based organisation which allegedly planned both murders, injects hatred into the veins of India’s secular being.

While revealing the Sanstha’s true nature, Patwardhan himself becomes a voice of courage. In one scene, during a Sanatan Sanstha press conference, the organisation’s spokesperson confronts Patwardhan about organising protests after M.M. Kalburgi’s murder. The filmmaker, who is shooting the press conference, raises his head from behind the camera and gives an angry rebuttal. Imagine – a rebuttal to the spokesperson of an organisation which posts crossed-out photographs of people who are mysteriously killed. What can be more courageous, in times like these?

Also read | Movie on Graham Staines Fails to Be the Reminder India Needs

The documentary then drifts into Dalit resistance to the rising brutalities against them. It begins tracing this resistance from the response to the public thrashing of Dalit cow skinners in Una. It shows how a mass Dalit movement is brewing in the country, with the rise of Dalit leaders such as Jignesh Mevani, who takes a mass oath at a rally, asking the crowd to repeat after him that they will refuse to lift cow carcasses in the future.

For me, that was a moment of hope in the documentary. Patwardhan’s capability to stun with short words is visible throughout the film. In one shot, he calls Chanakya a ‘Machiavellian Brahmin’. I am yet to find a better adjective to describe the egoistic patriarch. One of the most beautiful moments of the film is Sheetal Sathe’s song in a Dalit sabha.

After a powerful indictment of the oppressors of Dalits, the documentary goes on to students’ resistance to majoritarian politics. The events at the Jawaharlal Nehru University are shown in detail. Rohith Vemula’s suicide at the University of Hyderabad and the narration of his suicide note, which has now become a thorn in the consciousness of some of us, is one of the most hopeful moments of the film. Vemula’s poignant words and Patwardhan’s magical voice make for a healing concoction of sorts.

The film is not without its moments of humour. The chest-thumping primetime news anchor we all know so well is seen shouting at JNU student leader Umar Khalid. It appears that the anchor’s voice is drowned in his own noise. The uncomfortable silence and mumbling of the ABVP leader when asked to name at least five leaders from the BJP who had gone to jail during the freedom struggle is not only humorous, but also revealing.

Also read: When Bollywood Campaigned for Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The documentary finally gets to Dadri, Mohammad Akhlaq’s village where a frenzied mob of cow vigilantes killed him on suspicion of possessing cow meat. Patwardhan shows both the victims and the perpetrators. The most moving moment is when Akhlaq’s son, Mohammad Siraj, who is in the Indian Air Force, tells the filmmaker, “There is no country like India. I am lucky to be born here.”

All in all, Reason is like the sun in your eyes – uncomfortable, but reassuring that the sun still exists. It is a documentary we all need to urgently see, because it sharpens our arguments against the forces that are hell bent to create irreparable fissures in India’s social landscape. Reason can be the only argument against magic, irrationality, hopelessness and obscurantism.

Shah Alam Khan is professor, orthopaedics at AIIMS, New Delhi and author of the book Man with the White Beard. Views are personal.