Utpal Borpujari / New Delhi
Noted documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan’s latest offering “Reason (Vivek)”, described as a chronicling of “India’s slide away from the complex tumult of a secular democracy towards hardening divisions of power, caste, and religious belief”, will have its world premiere at the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The 260-minute-long film will be screened in the TIFF Docs section that focuses on documentary films in the festival. “Reason” joins five feature films that have been selected already for the festival to be held next month – Anurag Kashyap’s “Manmarziyan”, Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing”, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s “The Sweet Requiem”, Nandita Das’ “Manto” and Vasan Bala’s “Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota”.
TIFF, in its announcement about the selection of Patwardhan’s film, said about it, “In what is perhaps his most urgent and thorough exploration of Indian society yet, renowned documentarian Anand Patwardhan charts his country’s slide away from secular democracy and toward divisions of power, caste, and religious belief — and the violence that has followed.”
Patwardhan is known for his strong political documentaries such as “War and Peace”, “In The Name of God”, “Father, Son, and Holy War” and “Jai Bhim Comrade”, all of which have won international and national acclaim and were screened at TIFF.
Shot by Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru and edited by himself, “Reason” tries to explore through its eight chapters what the filmmaker sees as increasing violence in India due to hardening divisions of power, caste, and religious belief, which has resulted in the country’s “slide away from the complex tumult of a secular democracy”.
The film begins with the work, struggles, and eventual assassinations of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and anti-caste activist and Communist politician Govind Pansare, and then goes on to explore Dalit protests against social oppression, terrorism’s tangled roots, and how religious outrage can so easily descend into mob violence, TIFF said.
Patwardhan’s voiceover gives a deeper context to the film that combines fresh visuals and archival footages sequences. “Reason is not an easy film to watch, nor should it be. The film denounces — and depicts — violence perpetrated or fuelled by religious nationalists pushing to make India a Hindu state. As Reason builds and expands toward its conclusion, the scale of the dangers India faces becomes clear, and connections are made between the country’s inner conflicts and the similar political fires burning all over the world,” TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey said in the festival announcement.