Playing with anger
Amu, an indie film about the ‘84 massacre of Sikhs in Delhi, opens in NYC today and June 15th in L.A. Konkona Sen Sharma stars as a young Indian-American who visits Delhi and stumbles across the secret of her adoption against the backdrop of ‘84. It’s M. Night with a Molotov. The story behind the movie is more interesting than the film itself, which is engaging but plainly an early work.
Director Shonali Bose made the movie as a labor of love across many years, raising money in dribs and drabs in part from working-class Canadian Sikhs. She knew the carnage firsthand as she had worked in Delhi relief camps following the massacre. The movie is in an odd position: under a BJP government, it won India’s National Film Award with minimal cuts (the lines about government complicity), and Mira Nair introduced the filmmaker at its NYC premiere.
But under the current Congress government, the same party which allegedly planned the ‘84 pogrom, the censor board is refusing to clear the movie without a deadly 15 minutes of snips comprising nearly all the massacre scenes.
Bose says to get the film’s first clearance, she registered a film company in India. The script needed no preapproval as both she and her husband are Indian citizens. Then, to ward off political gundas, she hired her own force of men armed with iron bars to ring the shoot while in Jagdish Tytler’s own district. Much to her relief, nobody turned up.
In the Q&A, Bose came across as passionate and forceful and made an interesting point. She said that the pogrom was planned by the ruling elite, down to the level of checking electoral rolls for Sikh names and sending cops and thugs to oversee the targeting. Most average Indians, says Bose, did not rise up against Sikhs, and indeed many sheltered their keshdari neighbors in their houses until the danger passed. She said this helped heal a great wound among young Sikh Canadians, who feel hurt, rejected and un-Indian after ‘84.
If true, the charge implies some fascinating things. It’s not just that nobody’s been punished and accused murderers like Tytler have been swept back into power. That’s depressingly familiar when you look at Narendra Modi’s initial reelection in Gujarat. What’s fascinating is that the BJP seemingly learned the tactic from its political opponents and repeated it, this time against Muslims in Ahmedabad.
The charge is both morally revolting and reassuring: that India’s ruling parties are in the business of murdering minorities for power. And that most Indians have progressed beyond the violence of Partition. Not so far that the regressive ones won’t vote for killers. But far enough that the nation is mostly not the ethnic and religious tinderbox it’s painted as from the outside.
We see this with astroturf riots all the time: an innocuous event in one part of India ’sparks’ violence three days later in a totally different area. In reality these are political parties committing property crime and murder to play to the gallery. Amu accuses the Indian ruling elite of playing the same game as low-level VHP thugs, but at a level with higher stakes and a much larger body count. And it is saying that the Indian political party most identified with secularism does not have clean hands.
The movie itself is eye-opening and emotive, and the Delhi U. scenes are great fun, but the film suffers from underdirection. Sharma does a passable American accent, but at points her lines seem ad-libbed. At her best, this actress can turn even scenes in the banal Metro into something magical. Some of Amu’s editing cuts slackly between lines, leaving nibbles of dead air. The plot setup lacks subtlety. This is the kind of careful, humanist movie where viewers will see the dénouement coming a mile off.
These quibbles will no doubt seem ungracious, coming as they do about a movie which tackles a national shame most directors won’t touch with a bargepole and co-starring a real-life activist. The filmmakers have shown tremendous heart in getting through film financing, resistance to opening old wounds, film board censorship and the threat of violence to win the National Film Award and finally open their baby in America. The massacre is a stain on the nation, still crying out for redress 10 investigations and 23 years on. But the ‘84 Sikh massacre deserves a better film.
In the movie, Ankur Khanna plays a cynical Delhi U. student with a sarkari father who may have ‘84 blood on his hands. Amu seems to be going the way of Rang De Basanti and The Crucible but never closes the loop. Its sharpest drama is less in the film than the politics.
Desi arts regulars Waris Ahluwalia, Sarita Choudhury, Debargo Sanyal, Pooja Kumar and Madhur Jaffrey were at the premiere, as well as Broadway actress Angel Desai:
Amu opens today at the Cinema Village in Manhattan, 12th St. between 5th Ave. and University Place. Check out the trailer and showtimes:
on Friday, May 25th, 2007, 3:58 am in Film, Politics, Video clips › 
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If India’s a democracy, can’t the people vote to get rid of government censorship? What kind of free speech movement is afoot in India? When I google “free speech India” I just get a lot of propaganda saying India has free speech, which it obviously doesn’t.
Gripping!
I think you meant Gujarat. Godhra is where the train with hindu karsevaks was burnt, that started it all.
Yes. Very intense. That scene of the guy being dragged away looked a little too real.
I saw the lead actors in the desi 9/11 movie and was very impressed. For those who havent seen it, it’s very interesting but for irfan khan’s strawberry fetish. And I’m quite smitten with ms Konkona (in a cerebral way of course). She exudes an earthy, fertile, febrile sensuality. Even the sullen pouty look with does her well.
Maybe because the bulk of the people want the government censorship. Point to ponder.
phew!!! I can’t say anything further.
Nice analysis mate..
According to Ram Guha, India is an unnatural nation, a 50-50 democracy. I think India will turn out to be a better Democracy than the UK and the US, its just 60 years old. Give it some time to mature…
great review Manish..specially the background, hardships of the director in making a movie and emotional personal connection that inspired her to make the movie…Glad people are making realistic movies inspired by real life tragic events and incidents…
I cant wait to see this movie..again it wont come to Indianapolis that soon…guess everyone has to move to NY or LA to catch real good Indie films. ..too bad…..
In India these days it is becoming a trend…political parties motivated by religion starting fights which become bigger and bigger issues and massacres..
In Hyderabad too it is the same story..normally hindus and muslims in hyderabad are very friendly and coexist happily..but surprisingly everytime there is an election, there are these fights and massacres one political group trying to topple another one..Innocent poeple die in these political power games…
Good review of the movie. The ‘84 massacre will remain as a black mark in the post independence era of Indian history. Surprisingly culprits of this massacre( Delhi congress politicians ) are still roaming around freely. And innocent people will always be the visctims of these riots which are always backed by political parties. No value for human life.
I feel Indian law system needs serious surgery. Hope things will improve.
With due respect to all here but al this BS about ‘the average Indian being above it all ‘is just that ,BS.
yes there were people(hindus) who helped out and sheltered a few sikhs but by and large,amongst the populace of Delhi and UP and amongst Punjabi Hindus,the general consensus was the need to ‘teach the Sikhs a lesson’.
For those of you who followed the live coverage of Indira Gandhi’s last rites,cries of’Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge’ and ‘jitne bhi sarda hain desh ke gaddar hain’ resonated amongst the masses,not just a select few Congress goons.
The hatred and thirst for ‘revenge’ was widespread and all-too-pervasive(at least in North India).It would be much easier to be able to sleep peacefuly beliieving that the horror was committed by a lunatic fringe but that would be taking liberties with the truth.
Deduce whatever you want from it but the rioters of 1984 and their ‘philosophy’ enjoyed a far deeper and broader support than what most of you will be comfortable admitting.
And I am sorry I did not mean to imply complicty from the readership/contributors of the thread but people like you were(and probably still are) a painfuly thin minority.