CRUCIAL VIEWING

Anand Patwardhan’s JAI BHIM COMRADE (India/Documentary) & Anand Patwardhan’s REASON (VIVEK) (India/Documentary)

Block Cinema (at Northwestern University) – Friday, 6pm & Saturday, 12:30pm (Free Admission)

Anand Patwardhan is generally considered one of the most important working documentarians in India, and this makes his current visit to Chicago a major event for anyone interested in nonfiction cinema. I myself wasn’t familiar with his work until I previewed these two epics screening at Block this weekend, yet I came away from the films grateful for having experienced them; hearing the director discuss the work (and also, presumably, his heroic efforts to fight censorship in his home country) should be enlightening. Not only do JAI BHIM COMRADE (2012, 169 min, Digital Projection) and REASON (VIVEK) (2018, 159 min, DCP Digital) provide a wealth of information about India—they do so in an exciting manner that blends multiple nonfiction forms and doesn’t always proceed in chronological order. One feels immersed in the subject matter rather than simply educated about it. Patwardhan alternates between expository lessons about historical figures, profiles of regular folks, and man-on-the-street interviews; interrupts present-day events with extended historical footnotes; and incorporates TV news footage and his own personal commentary. The result of the collage-like approach is that it encourages viewers to think about issues on a societal level, to see individual lives as part of larger trends. Sadly, the social trends considered in these films are resoundingly malign: JAI BHIM COMRADE looks at the persistence of caste-based prejudice in India in the decades following the formal abolition of the caste system, and REASON considers the influence of extremist, right-wing Hinduism in Indian politics and society at large. Taken together, these documentaries issue an alarming portrait of a nation plagued by bigotry, blind faith, and the threat of mob rule. At the same time, they’re not entirely despairing; each film invokes noble figures whose influence still may be capable of inspiring social progress. The title of JAI BHIM COMRADE comes from a slogan invoking B.R. Ambedkar, the political leader who drafted the Indian Constitution that outlawed the caste system and all forms of discrimination, and one of the stirring things about the movie is how it shows the influence of Ambedkar’s thought in progressive social movements today. Likewise, the title of REASON refers to India’s growing free-thinking movement, which seeks to undermine the influence of religious-sanctioned bigotry in politics and culture. Patwardhan is clear about which side of the issues he stands on, but this comes off as brave, given that he faces persecution for doing so.