For a documentary filmmaker whose works have received as many awards as perhaps the number of cuts demanded by the Censor Board, what could be a better term to encapsulate his resolve to challenge them in court, year after year, than Satyagraha? "Eclectic" is how Anand Patwardhan defines his oeuvre spanning close to five decades, but when Junoon, the theatre movement, invited him to pick a theme from his films to speak about at their Mumbai Local session, he chose to discuss how Gandhi and his philosophy found its way into his work. The session will be interspersed with clips from Patwardhan's films, with time later for questions and debate.

Having grappled with socio-political themes in his work — from religious fundamentalism, issues of slum dwellers to casteism — Patwardhan, more recently, has been travelling with his documentaries. We spoke to the filmmaker ahead of this evening's talk.