dec 6th, 2006
i have seen this film, and it's a heartbreaker.
but i do not agree with the last, 'secular' statement that 'china's national newspaper' puts in as its obligatory editorial comment. on the contrary, the militant/terrorist does have a religion: exclusive semitism, the harsh ideology of the desert. the victim does have a religion: the gentle faiths of the forest.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: KAMAL
this news and the movie deserves wide recognition.
please circulate widely.
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/11/23/stories/2006112301150100.htm
REFUGEES In their own land .Ashok Pandit talks about his film "And the World Remained Silent" that opens at IFFI this Thursday
FIRE WITHIN Filmmaker Ashok Pandit
Many years before we became familiar with the term citizen
journalist, Ashok Pandit was doing it all. As Kashmir lay burning,
torn by militant violence, Pandit was moved to tears. "I shot all
those moments when the separatist movement was at its peak, the
national flag was burnt. That fire is still with me. That is why
you see me raving and ranting at so many places," says Pandit, in
Goa for the 37th International Film Festival of India, now on in
Panaji. His film, And the World Remained Silent, is the opener in
the non-feature film section, beginning this Thursday.
"Nobody has understood till today that the people who kill cannot
be freedom fighters. The world woke up when 200 people died in
Mumbai but when lakhs of people were being driven out of their
homes in the Valley, America called them freedom fighters."
No one spared
The director of Sheen, known for his fearless views, is clearly
angry. "I have talked about the world being quiet on the issue of
Kashmir Pandits in my film, but I have begun by questioning our
own people first. I have not spared any political party. I hold
the Congress as well as the BJP responsible. The latter came to
power on the tears of Kashmiri Pandits but did nothing for the
people still in refugee camps. My film talks of these people whose
camps are like smallpox on the face of the nation."
According to Pandit, the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits must have
been the first case in the history of world politics where the
people of a country lived a life of refugees in their own
country.
"This documentary was a reflection and reaction to the mayhem I
had witnessed there in Kashmir in that era," he says, thanking the
IFFI jury for lending him a platform to express his anguish.
And the World Remained Silent, a 25-minute film replete with video
footage of troubled Kashmir, right from the time of Jammu and
Kashmir Liberation Front demonstrations in 1990 to the pathetic
conditions in the refugee camps, was recently screened in the U.K.
in the House of Commons.
No financier
"The MPs were shocked. They did not know Kashmiri Pandits
existed," Pandit exclaims, adding he shot the film and developed
it in the form of a documentary on his own.
"There is no financier. I have incurred a personal expenditure of
Rs.2.5 lakhs. However, I am not expecting any commercial gains.
The motive is bigger than commerce."
Next film
Through with And the World... Pandit has already moved on to his
next subject. This time, it will be a full-length feature film
like Sheen. Yet again, the film is based in Kashmir.
A story of Kashmir Pandits living in refugee camps in Jammu, it
stars Anupam Kher in a pivotal role. "Tentatively called Homeland,
the film go on the floors in January," says Pandit.
He concludes on a more conciliatory note: "The entire system is
suffering from cancer. Our priorities have gone wrong. Be it in
Gujarat or Kashmir, justice has to be done. Somebody needs to
focus on the North-East, which is a bigger problem than Kashmir.
The victim and the militant do not have a religion.
No comments:
Post a Comment