For those of you who have never heard these words. These are movie titles. Indian movie titles. I am sure these movies broadly digress from the mindless noisy song and dance and letcher routine that is the norm of most indian movies that are commercially marketed.
These two movies are ,'Acclaimed movies'. Accalimed at the film festivals . There has not been any mass showcasing at theatres in India.
Both of these movies are broadly based on Communal riots -more precisely 'The Godhra riots' that took place in the Indian state of Gujarath in the year 2002.
Yes, you guessed right, the riots took place in the name of religion.
My question is, "Since when is religion more valuable than a human life?"
Life is a indelible gift of nature.The human body is a miracle of nature. To think that a group of molecules function and sustain on their own , move around and produce more of their own kind. That notion of life , baffles me and fills me with Awe. And here are people , are killing life without a thought just primarily prompted by anger .
Someone once said that Religion is the opium of the masses. Hmmm.Makes me think.
I shall write a more serious blog entry about Godhra , but meanwhile let us get back to these two movies.
PARZANIA is allegedly(i haven't watched this movie yet !) about a boy that gets lost during these riots and there are stories of other people also told during the narrative of this main plotline. This movie was released solely for the film festival in 2005 and found itself a theatrical release in 2007. I want to watch this movie. But , where can i find it? These movies are not as easily availabe to find as much as the more noisy pointless commercial indian movies are. Probably the movie makers or the marketers think that there are no people who might want to watch it . Well, They are wrong. Indian public is far more sensitive than the movie makers think. Yes, the villagers and the small towners included. Incidentally, Parzania is the directorial work of one LA based director of Indian origin, Mr.Rahul Dholakia. Cast consists of Nasseruddin shah whom i immensely respect as an actor. He belongs to the meagre clan of actors in India ,who actually are really professional and end up making your respect their trade .
Meanwhile FIRAAQ is the directorial debut of Ms.Nandita Das. She is a very talented person in general from what i can gather by her social work , her views on things(which time and again i get to hear on tv by way of interviews and people discussion forums).I was very impressed with her work in this national award winning movied called "Deveeri" .More on Deveeri in another blog entry of mine.
Firaaq also revolves around the Godhra riots but deals with the subject in a different way. It chides the topic of how lives are interconnected and how something drastic as riots can affect and change lives forever.
Again Firaaq has won acclaim at film festivals .It was released in 2008. I am yet to watch this film.
Gosh, can someone trust the Indian audience and please start releasing these sensible movies on a more larger scale. I personally know a lot of men and women and youngsters from small towns and villages even who want to watch these movies. But , instead of ever getting to watch these movies, all they get is the crass movies at their local movie theatres. Can someone do something to make available national award movies at theatres in small towns and cities?
Just as i was scouring for places i can by a dvd for firaaq and parzania. i find this link
But why must i need to buy every dvd ? Can we not have large scale theatrical releases?
But , perhaps , 'doordarshan' (India's national Tv broadcast) or this new 'loksabha channel' (appears also to be sister channel of doordarshan) showcase this movie .I am hoping .One can only hope.
Then there was "AMU" a story about the 84 riots, but who needs a life here.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time I thought that Is it water only that is precious and should be saved?? What about Life??
Who needs a Life here :(