Cutting through the frenzy, Vibha Bakshi’s “Daughters of Mother India” tells us what we are, what we can become.
Jam-packed is not an adjective that we easily associate with the screening of a documentary. But when the theme is “Daughters of Mother India”, you can’t ignore the writing on the screen. For director Vibha Bakshi the houseful at the India Habitat Centre this Tuesday is nothing new. Last year she got a similar response at the NCPA in Mumbai. Made in the aftermath of Nirbhaya gang rape case, the documentary has won the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues this year and on the third anniversary of the horrendous crime that shook the nation’s conscience, Viacom 18 network has decided to translate the documentary into five languages and broadcasting it across all of its regional media channels.
The 45-minute film keeps you riveted without getting judgemental. It captures the hysteria that engulfed the city after December 16 but quietly punctures it by moving on to Gudiya’s case, which was no less inhuman. But before you become numb, she provides voices which makes us believe that all is not lost. That a cogent discussion is still possible. That nothing is going to change overnight and we have to find our way through the imperfections we live with. And towards the end when an ordinary young man says this society can’t become free till its women are free, a lump appears in the throat without notice.
“We clung on to hope and I feel in any fight the day you lose hope you lose the fight. The idea was let’s empower those stakeholders in the society who are making the change happen. This way there will be a multiplication of positive change. We didn’t point fingers that you are the villain and you are the hero. We are in this together and let’s take joint responsibility and don’t go about changing the world. The vices start from home. I am a mother of two sons. If I raise my sons with an unnecessary sense of entitlement you know whether I am part of the problem or solution,” says Bakshi, who in the past has co-directed and co-produced documentaries in the US which have aired on HBO and Lifetime TV.
The film provides no solutions. It just leaves the audiences grappling with realities. “It has the voices and echoes of the streets,” says Bakshi. For instance, sociologist Dipankar Gupta talks about how the concept of kanyadan ingrains a sense of entitlement in boys and makes a father feel that a girl is a burden. “Gender violence is an extreme manifestation of how a person is feeling at a particular time but vices are very deep-rooted. From the biggest to smallest homes these vices exist. When parents tell the boy from the time he is a child that he is the entitled one, it might not necessarily result in deviant behaviour but condescension for women is an extension of that sense of entitlement.”
Bakshi says she didn’t go into the film with an agenda. And perhaps that’s why she has been able to present the police as a group of human beings coming from the same society from where you and I emerge. “When a filmmaker goes with an agenda then he or she searches only for that, I told the team to leave the biases and approach with an open mind. If you have biases then so does that police officer.”
The film has been made compulsory viewing for all police officers but before doubts crop up Bakshi underlines that it is an independent film. “My husband Vishal and I funded it. We took a very conscious decision that we are not going to tie up with any network till we complete it. We just wanted to make a responsible film.” The hardest part, she recalls, was the access to police force. At that time they didn’t want to hear the word camera and journalists but bringing in the police men was the most crucial part because they were in the line of fire.”
There is a scene in the film where a lady police officer is conducting a gender sensitisation class and one could see the discomfort on the faces of some senior police officers. “The fact that the most senior police officers were put in a class was a big thing. Some of them said why we should change when anyway we are seen as the villains.”
Talking about the process, Bakshi says, every day she used to head out with the hope that “let’s see what happens.” “On many days nothing happened. I tested the patience of my cinematographer Atar Singh Saini, who has done some big Bollywood projects.” One day when she was looking for coffee, she found the Asmita Group performing on the street against the gender violence and from then on the group became an important aspect to portray the constructive part youth can play on the street.
She has delved into the debate of provocation by how women dress up, how the increasing presence of pornographic material around us provokes men. In fact for a few seconds the camera lingers on the tight and short skirts that are becoming a common dress code in big cities but then Shilpi Marwah hollers how the way you dress up doesn’t matter when even a five-year-old is not safe. “The idea is to bring home the point that you have no right to justify rape. It doesn’t matter that she is dressed in a certain way or the girl is little. Rape is an opportunistic crime. Whether the person is watching porn or is getting titillated by a woman walking on the street he still has no right.”
Bakshi emphasises the need of packaging in a documentary. It sounds odd but it’s crucial when you have to engage a fleeting audience. “It is easy to entertain but very hard to keep the audience engaged on a difficult issue. Hemanti Sarkar has sensitively cut the film.” It has the pace that doesn’t allow the viewer to get distracted but at the same time all the points have been covered.
In the U.S., says Bakshi, people go and watch documentaries. “There was a time when nobody did. Something shifted there. It’s time it shifts in India. It is not about my film alone. It is going to open gates for others as well. If we had a houseful on a Tuesday evening where no free food or drinks were served, it means people are open for it.”
Unlike Leslee Udwin’s film, which was banned in India, Bakshi didn’t feel the need to interview the rapists. “I had access and I would have got more headlines but I don’t think as a stakeholder it would have done anything for my country. This is my first film out of India. I did a U.S. government film for violence against women and I can say whether you are a rapist in the U.S. or in India you speak the same language. I don’t want to give them a platform to express it. I didn’t want to make it like, Oh! This is how an Indian rapist thinks. I don’t know whether they have a manual but they speak the same language,” avers Bakshi.
Now that the juvenile convict in the Nirbhaya case is coming out from the reform home, Bakshi says, “Like an ordinary citizen, I feel if he could do what he did he is adult enough to take the consequences of it.”
Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO Viacom18 on picking “Daughters of Mother India” and space for documentary on private channels
On the idea
The key thing is as a media network we can do things which shape the society and at times remind us who actually we are. What I liked about Vibha’s film is it is very balanced and objective. In the past we have backed films “Kahaani”, “Queen”, “Mary Kom” and “Margarita With A Straw”.
It is easier to place a feature film than a documentary. Does it make commercial sense for you?
I can’t say it doesn’t make any commercial sense at all but is it going to be a ratings driver, the answer is no. It is consistent with the things that we do. It is an opportunity to give something new to the viewer.
But how and where will you place it when ‘Naagin’ is your ratings driver?
We will place it across our network. We will try and maximise the eyeballs. We have to find that space.
We will do it as a one off and I hope this will spark interest. More producers will emerge and more networks will create space for documentaries. And once it becomes a more routine stuff, we might get some like-minded sponsors as well and then it will become sustainable.
As for “Naagin”, my view is very simple. India has many hues and we are in the business of entertaining, engaging and enriching. So Vibha’s film is going to enrich but at all times we have to entertain as well.
But then you become a multi-faced entity?
That is the tricky part. In general entertainment space I have to entertain all Indians. By definition I will have a variety of programming. If I can draw an analogy, it is almost like a thali.
You have spent several years at Unilever. Will brands like to back something like this?
It depends on the theme. In the new world in order to build brands, you need to have functional quotient, emotional quotient and social quotient. Some of these things appeal to the social quotient.
The Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) has sent an advisory on supernatural content during prime time. How seriously do you take it?
Very seriously. They have exercised their judgement and have felt that it is going a little over board. We will evaluate it.
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