Anand Patwardhan’s recent film looks at India’s history and its partition through the personal lens of conversations with his family
Anand Patwardhan at his Dadar residence. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
It’s not often in these times that one comes across films or art that go against the tide. Over the years, documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan’s work, has been known to be fearless, frank, and honest. It has always raised questions about divisive politics based on caste and religion. His most recent work, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The World Is Family), takes a look at India’s freedom struggle and some of the core values like unity and oneness, which years after its independence, seem to be under threat.
Unlike his previous work, this film has personal footage of his immediate and extended family, his home and his friends. There are intimate conversations filmed across three decades. The director films and interviews his late parents, Wasudev Hari Patwardhan (aka Balu) and Nirmala Patwardhan, his aunts, uncles, and friends. They talk about their memories of figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar. “When the interviews began, I soon understood that this was an oral history of the freedom movement in which my whole family had been deeply involved either as protagonists or as eyewitnesses. Today, that whole history is being erased and rewritten, so I decided to share this story. The film is clear enough for people to see the difference between history and mythology,” Patwardhan tells us.
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The 96-minute Marathi film includes simple, heartwarming anecdotes such as Nirmala Patwardhan losing a precious Gandhiji’s hanky, which she considered a precious gift, while moving to India post-Partition. It also tells us about many personal events from the family’s life including the passing away of Patwardhan’s parents. “We are more or less a rational family. Death is part of life. Rituals are done to comfort the living, they mean nothing to the dead. Filming my parents was my way of saying goodbye,” says Patwardhan.
In an interview at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival, Patwardhan said that while he believes that there is a renaissance in Indian filmmaking, both fiction and documentary, OTT won’t touch his films. When we asked him how he manages to speak his mind in times of censorship, he said, “Cinema, and indeed all art and expression is defined by the limits placed. The limits are both political and commercial. We will always find ways to speak but the State and the Market decide how much to allow these voices to spread. Today, despite censorship and market disapproval, a film I made in 1992 is still being screened across India even as the country allows manufactured news and religious fervour to dominate our screens and newspaper headlines, and thus cannibalise our brains.”
On: Thursday, January 18, 6.30 pm onwards
At: Little Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point
Entry: First-come-first-served basis (The film screenings will be followed by a post-film discussion)
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