Filming Reality The Independent Documentary Movement in India is an essential reader for anybody who has been tracking the non-fiction filmmaking scene or is interested in it. Veteran Kolkata journalist Shoma A Chatterji has painstakingly watched and reviewed scores of the most noteworthy documentaries made over the decades. Chatterji hasn’t merely drawn up a list of the films that matter. She has also interviewed, wherever possible, the directors to understand the motivations and passions behind their undertakings. The book is divided into genres, such as biographies and ethnographies. Here are excerpts from descriptions of seven titles that, according to Chatterji, are among the most important documentaries to have emerged in the past four decades.
Bombay Our City (1985)
“The first documentary that made a deep impact on me was Anand Patwardhan’s Bombay Our City (1985)… The film shook me up from my ‘happy’ world of feature films and brought me face-to-face with a cinema and a I world I knew little about… It is a powerful essay on the politics of space and structure that dictate the blueprint of our country’s irrational development. The film marks a turning point towards a more specific definition of the political documentary that doubles as a social comment. The film led to the evolution of a movement towards the formation of counter-cinema.”
Kya Hua Is Sheher Ko (1986)
“Kya Hua Is Sheher Ko (1986) is a pioneering political work of contemporary relevance: communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in 1984 forms the starting point for this film, whose complexity lends it immense political force. The film’s historical perspective is provided by a thorough commentary, which gives the camera’s particular presence the necessary depth and complexity.”
Voices From Baliapal (1988)
“Had Ranjan Palit and Vasudha Joshi not made Voices From Baliapal, few Indians would have ever known about the collective, peaceful yet active resistance of an ethnic mass against a wrong government policy. The government was trying to set up a nuclear base in Balliapal in Orissa that would uproot and displace the people from their natural habitat…”
Khayal Gatha (1989)
“Kumar Shahani’s Khayal Gatha and Bhavantarana (1991) are two of the most outstanding documentaries exploring the history of the Khayal and documenting the life of the Odissi dancer and scholar, the late Kelucharan Mohapatr, respectively. He played around with the form in the former film, turning it into a blend of abstractions and concrete expressions without being loud about the chronological history of the Khayal School of Music. Khayal Gatha stressed the aesthetics of the film rather than on factual information, investing the concept of the documentary with a new dimension.”
Tiger – The Death Chronicles (2007)
“Commissioned by PSBT-India, the 63-minute Tiger – The Death Chronicles (2007)in English with subtitles takes a holistic look at the real tiger crisis. Travelling through tiger hotspots like Sariska, Panna and Buxa and shot over a period of nine months, the film also looks at states like Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Goa to explore how they may be trading their tigers and their forests for greater economic revenue.”
Char – The No Man’s Island (2012)
The movie, directed by Sourav Sarangi, won accolades and awards right across the world. Char – The No Man’s Island points out how even nature has neither sympathy nor understanding for this vulnerable group of people who live a precarious existence on a tract of land that has risen up on the Ganges near Farakka Barrage in West Bengal in the fear of losing everything to the eroding shores of the river… The island is named ‘No Man’s Island’ because it is as fragile as the people who live on it.”
A Poet, A City, and A Footballer (2014)
"Joshy Joseph’s long documentary, A Poet, A City, and A Footballer (2014), shows how the dynamics of death unfolds in various manifestations. People filled with the vibrancy of life even after they have survived death-like situations, larger-than-life personalities such as P.K. Banerjee one of the greatest footballer the world has ever produced, continue to infect everyone with his throbbing energy… On the other hand, one encounters a very low-profile occasional filmmaker and gifted poet Gautam Sen who begins to shoot a documentary on the great footballer and a feature film with a superstar at the same time just after he has been diagnosed with fourth-degree terminal cancer of the lungs.”
Excerpted with permission from Filming Reality The Independent Documentary Movement in India, Sage Publications.
