'Jashn-e-azadi'- celebrating freedom...

[Pooja Sharma]

A few days ago, Tapan and I braved the notoriously heavy Mumbai rains to travel all the way from Borivli to Prabhadevi for the film ‘Jashn-e-azadi’, a film on Kashmir made by Sanjay Kak, and being screened by Vikalp. We reached to find policemen at the door of the building. Curious and suspicious, we made our way up to the second floor, to the venue. More policemen… and grave looking duo of Anand Patwardhan and Sunil Shanbag, deep in conversation with the men in khaki.
Apparently, the police had received an anonymous call complaining that the film contains material that is inflammatory, and its screening may lead to a law and order problem. And they were therefore there to stop the screening. The organizers were not convinced. They asked for a written order. The police didn’t have any. They asked for some time to procure one. The organizers agreed to wait till 7.30. The audience, comprised mostly of professionals, both film makers and film lovers from various walks of life, who rely on screenings such as this to keep in touch with documentary films as well as low budget and short films all of which are otherwise difficult to access, waited patiently while Sanjay and Anand held fort, trying to keep the audience both informed of the goings on with the police and entertained. There was on that occasion, a different and unusual group as well in the audience, a group of plainclothesmen, who were politely asked to leave by the host, the man incharge of the Bhupesh Gupta auditorium. It was strange, surreal almost to see several men get up from the last row and leave after it was established that they were not regular viewers and unknown to anyone in the crowd.
The police returned finally with a search and seize warrant. They didn’t have to search, Sanjay readily handed to them the only copy that he had of the film on a dvd, which they promptly seized and sealed. Their mission was accomplished, as was the anonymous caller’s. The screening was stopped, the audience had to go back disappointed and wondering how little it took to disrupt even a private event in this city. And how easy to denounce an independent voice that dares to impinge upon a subject that may only be spoken of by people ‘authorised’ to do so, such as the government and the media. It doesn’t matter of course, as Sanjay pointed out, that the media sends out its young 20 and 30 something beat journalists, who sometimes have all of a few hours, or more rarely, a few days to do all their research and a few minutes to communicate it in. That apparently is acceptable. But a well researched and thought out chronicle of the goings on in a region, shot and edited over several years, and presented in a film of over two hours, by a filmmaker of repute, is questionable and its screening to a set of professionals, a threat to law and order.
Such, unfortunately, is the freedom of expression in our country.

[Saihmee Dara Singh]

some images of the happening