Waves of Revolution

Waves of Revolution made during the repressive days of the Emergency in India documents
the 1974-75 uprising of the
people of Bihar in Eastern India.

By 1974 India with its few rich and many poor had become a seething mass of discontents. The Bihar Movement was initiated by students and led by the veteran Gandhian Socialist Jayaprakash Narain (JP). By 1974 it had attracted a mass following amongst all sections of the population.

Non-violent and reformist in character, the movement helped focus attention on the grievances of the people. During the Emergency it became, along with its leader JP, the symbol of resistance to dictatorship, culminating in the electoral defeat of the Congress Party in March 1977.

Waves of Revolution was completed in secret in 1975 using outdated film stock and makeshift equipment. A part of it was shot in Super 8 which was then projected on to a screen and re-filmed with a 16 mm camera. Processing took place in various laboratories for fear of discovery. The sound was almost entirely recorded on a consumer cassette recorder.
Clandestine screenings of the film took place in India during the Emergency. In September 1975 a print was cut into segments, smuggled abroad, reassembled and circulated by non-resident Indian organizations and individuals concerned with exposing the growing repression in India. Today the film serves as a reminder of the spirit of a people who fought for the right to democracy.

REVIEWS
" In India, we have no Joris Evens who had a film making career that took him around the globe where he and his camera were always at the right place at the right time. Political consciousness is a rare thing among our film makers; and in this context Anand Patwardhan is both a new name and a new trend in Indian film."
Prabrit Dasmahapatra - Frontier

" Full credit for just the fact of his film in the first place, and then for its spirit and message."
Nissim Ezekiel - Times of India

" More eloquently the half-hour long film Waves of Revolution speaks for itself - the document is a poignant portrait of an uprising that led to the implementation of the Emergency."
India Today

" Patwardhan's is a surprisingly mobile camera. It takes up positions behind the speaker's head and watches crowds, moves with marchers and sneaks past with blurring speed when the police swoop on the marchers."
J.S. Rao - Free Press Journal