20th Madurai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2018
Retrospective : Lalit Vachani
Films
1. The Boy in the Branch (16mm; Colour and B/W; 27 min; 1993)
- in Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit and English, with English subtitles
A documentary film on the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by the Hindu fundamentalist organization, the RSS.“The Branch is the Life of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” (Mohan Bhagwat, RSS leader)
Set at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, India, The Boy in the Branch is a film about the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS), India’s foremost Hindu fundamentalist organization.
Juxtaposing the activities of two different RSS shakhas or branches, the film documents the stories and the games, the rituals and the play that socialize the young RSS recruit.
CREDITS
Researched, Produced and Directed by Lalit Vachani
Camera: Ranjan Palit
Editing: Reena Mohan
Sound: P. M. Satheesh
Research: Shuddhabratha SenguptaA Wide Eye film for South, Channel 4
Premiered at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in Germany, 1993.
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2. The Men in the Tree (Video; 98 min; 2002)
- in Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit and English, with English subtitles
The sequel to 'The Boy in the Branch' - the filmmaker revisits the RSS, a Hindu right-wing organization in India after a gap of eight years.SYNOPSIS
In early 1993, Lalit Vachani and the Wide Eye Film team completed a documentary film, The Boy in the Branch, for Channel 4 Television, U.K. Set at the headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur, the film was about the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by a branch of the RSS - the foremost Hindu nationalist organization in India.
Eight years later, Vachani returned to Nagpur to meet the characters from his earlier film.
At one level, this is a film about memory. It is a documentary in the form of a personal revisit where a filmmaker returns to the issues, the locations and the subjects of an earlier film. At another level, The Men in the Tree is a political documentary on the RSS and Hindu fundamentalism. It is about some of the individuals, the stories and the myths, the buildings and the branches that enable the growth of the RSS and its Hindutva ideology.
Sound: Asheesh Pandya
Editing, additional camera, production and direction: Lalit Vachani
Additional editing: Sameera Jain
- in Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit and English, with English subtitles
A documentary film on the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by the Hindu fundamentalist organization, the RSS.“The Branch is the Life of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh” (Mohan Bhagwat, RSS leader)
Set at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, India, The Boy in the Branch is a film about the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS), India’s foremost Hindu fundamentalist organization.
Juxtaposing the activities of two different RSS shakhas or branches, the film documents the stories and the games, the rituals and the play that socialize the young RSS recruit.
CREDITS
Researched, Produced and Directed by Lalit Vachani
Camera: Ranjan Palit
Editing: Reena Mohan
Sound: P. M. Satheesh
Research: Shuddhabratha SenguptaA Wide Eye film for South, Channel 4
Premiered at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in Germany, 1993.
--
2. The Men in the Tree (Video; 98 min; 2002)
- in Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit and English, with English subtitles
The sequel to 'The Boy in the Branch' - the filmmaker revisits the RSS, a Hindu right-wing organization in India after a gap of eight years.SYNOPSIS
In early 1993, Lalit Vachani and the Wide Eye Film team completed a documentary film, The Boy in the Branch, for Channel 4 Television, U.K. Set at the headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur, the film was about the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by a branch of the RSS - the foremost Hindu nationalist organization in India.
Eight years later, Vachani returned to Nagpur to meet the characters from his earlier film.
At one level, this is a film about memory. It is a documentary in the form of a personal revisit where a filmmaker returns to the issues, the locations and the subjects of an earlier film. At another level, The Men in the Tree is a political documentary on the RSS and Hindu fundamentalism. It is about some of the individuals, the stories and the myths, the buildings and the branches that enable the growth of the RSS and its Hindutva ideology.
CREDITS
Camera: Ranjan Palit
Sound: P.M. Satheesh, Ranjan Palit
Post-production audio: Asheesh Pandya
Editing: Lalit Vachani, Shikha Sen
Researched, produced and directed by Lalit Vachani
Camera: Ranjan Palit
Sound: P.M. Satheesh, Ranjan Palit
Post-production audio: Asheesh Pandya
Editing: Lalit Vachani, Shikha Sen
Researched, produced and directed by Lalit Vachani
A Wide Eye Film, 2002
Premiered at IDFA Amsterdam, 2002.
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3. The Play Goes On (Natak Jari Hai)
(2005; Color; Video; 83 min.)
- in Hindi and English, with English subtitles
A documentary about a socialist street theatre group in Delhi, India.
SYNOPSIS
What does it mean to perform socialist ‘agit-prop’ theatre in India in a globalized era of increasing intolerance and inequality?
Natak Jari Hai is a documentary about Jana Natya Manch (The People’s Theatre Front), the little theatre group that never stopped performing in the face of dramatic political transformation and personal tragedy. The film explores the motivations and ideals of the JANAM actors and their vision of resistance and change as they perform their ‘People’s Theatre’ in diverse parts of India. It brings to life the world of socialist theatre through the words of JANAM’s members, and through a reflective portrayal of the group’s greatest tragedy - the assassination of its convenor Safdar Hashmi in 1989.
Natak Jari Hai is a documentary about Jana Natya Manch (The People’s Theatre Front), the little theatre group that never stopped performing in the face of dramatic political transformation and personal tragedy. The film explores the motivations and ideals of the JANAM actors and their vision of resistance and change as they perform their ‘People’s Theatre’ in diverse parts of India. It brings to life the world of socialist theatre through the words of JANAM’s members, and through a reflective portrayal of the group’s greatest tragedy - the assassination of its convenor Safdar Hashmi in 1989.
CREDITS
Camera: Mrinal DesaiSound: Asheesh Pandya
Editing, additional camera, production and direction: Lalit Vachani
Additional editing: Sameera Jain
A Wide Eye Film, 2005
Premiered at FID Marseille, 2005.
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4. The Salt Stories
4. The Salt Stories
(2008; Colour and B/W; Video; 84 min.)
- in Hindi, Gujarati and English, with English subtitles
Director's cut and the longer version of `In Search of Gandhi', THE SALT STORIES is a road movie documentary set in modern India that follows the trail of Mahatma Gandhi's salt march of 1930.
SYNOPSIS
In 1930, a group of Indians led by a frail, elderly man marched a distance of 241 miles. They marched for salt.
Mahatma Gandhi was able to craft an anti-colonial, nationalist movement around the most basic issue of livelihood: the right of Indians to make and consume their own salt.
77 years later, the Wide Eye Film team followed the trail of the famous Dandi salt march, stopping at the same villages and towns, in search of Gandhi's legacy.
Set against the backdrop of Gandhi's original journey, this is a road-movie about issues of livelihood in modern, globalizing India. It is a documentary about 'the salt stories' of our times.
CREDITS
Camera: Mrinal Desai
Location sound and post-production audio: Anita Kushwaha
Editing and additional camera: Lalit Vachani
Additional editing: Menno Boerema
Researched, produced and directed by Lalit Vachani
Location sound and post-production audio: Anita Kushwaha
Editing and additional camera: Lalit Vachani
Additional editing: Menno Boerema
Researched, produced and directed by Lalit Vachani
A Wide Eye Film, 2008
AWARDS:
Best documentary film, MIAAC 2009
2nd prize, Film South Asia Kathmandu, 2009
2nd prize, Film South Asia Kathmandu, 2009
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5. An Ordinary Election (2015, Color and B/W, Video; 125 min.)
- in Hindi and English, with English subtitles
The story of an Indian election campaign from up-close - an intimate ground-up perspective of the anxieties, ambitions, struggles, and intrigues from the electoral battleground.
SYNOPSIS
Delhi, August - December 2013
A new politics of hope and change flickers in the world's largest democracy, as a rank outsider makes an audacious bid for political power. A tiny new political party prepares to take on the mighty political establishment in the capital city: the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the party of the Common Man. Like its counterparts from Greece to Spain, this anti-establishment party promises to vanquish political corruption and bring power back to ordinary people.
An Ordinary Election tells the extra-ordinary story of the Aam Aadmi Party's debut election campaign in the constituency of RK Puram, Delhi. From the campaign war room to the streets, from the narrow lanes of urban slums to the manicured parks of upper-class neighbourhoods, the crew follows the charismatic candidate Shazia Ilmi and the ordinary men and women of the AAP fighting to change the terms of Indian democracy in an election campaign where victory seems impossible...
CREDITS
Camera and location sound: Lalit Vachani, Syed Husain Akbar, Anurag Dasgupta
Postproduction audio: Girjashanker Vohra, Paul Schneiter
Postproduction video: Avik Chatterjee
Edited by Lalit Vachani
Research and co-production: Srirupa Roy
Researched, produced and directed by Lalit Vachani
Produced by CeMIS - the Centre for Modern Indian Studies at the University of Göttingen, Germany
Postproduction audio: Girjashanker Vohra, Paul Schneiter
Postproduction video: Avik Chatterjee
Edited by Lalit Vachani
Research and co-production: Srirupa Roy
Researched, produced and directed by Lalit Vachani
Produced by CeMIS - the Centre for Modern Indian Studies at the University of Göttingen, Germany
A Wide Eye Film, 2015
Premiered at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi 2015
Festival Premiere: Indische Kulturtage, Göttingen, Germany 2015
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