Disturbing is an understatement to describe the experience of watching “En Dino Muzaffarnagar”. The documentary cuts through the cobwebs of lies and deception to create a clear picture of the communal riots that shook the country just before the Lok Sabha elections. Directed by Shubhradeep Chakravarty and his spouse Meera Chaudhary, the film has been denied certificate by Central Board of Film Certification. One watched it at a private screening in Delhi and returned with unsettling answers that most mainstream media outlets failed to deliver. As always the reality is layered but it is definitely embarrassing for the party that espouses ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ for the film says in clear terms that BJP owes it stupendous victory in Uttar Pradesh to the riots.
Chakravarty, best known for his hard hitting work Godhara Tak, passed away on August 25 because of brain haemorrhage leaving the baton in the hands of Meera.
In many ways Meera was the force behind the film because she has familial ties with the region and understands it and the mindset of the Jat community. “My family hails from Budhana. As a child when I used to go back to the village during holidays playing with Muslim friends and celebrating holidays together was a usual thing So when the riots broke out I wanted to know who was responsible for tearing the social fabric in the rural areas which have remained free from communal fire for years. The Jats and Muslims are not just neighbours here. They share a symbiotic relationship in the region. The Muslim families work in the farms of Jat farmers and women help in the household work. So when I first went there one month after the riot I found many Jats distraught at the turn of events.” She says the people in the region are known to be brave and loyal but they can’t hide the lies. “And it reflects in the interviews on camera,” she says adding it was not easy to convince people involved in the riots to open up. However, when the camera shifts to children and women, the worst sufferers of any riot, the half-truths fade away.
Chakravarty’s films have been frill-free exercises which strictly service the task at hand. But in “En Dino” we can see the craft, the use of folklore to see the metamorphosis of what was described as Mohabbat Nagar in legends. In the lilt of raginis we can sense the matter of fact approach of the people of the region which has been the centre of political upheaval in mythology. In fact, the ragini singer points out how the State and its players have used the common man for centuries for their political goals. Later RSS ideologue Indresh Kumar invokes Sita and Draupadi and a senior BJP leader goes back to ‘action and reaction’ theory to explain the root cause behind the riots.
Meera says eve teasing is common phenomenon in the region and lumpen elements from both the communities are involved in it. “The lack of schools in villages and the topography of the region help these boys. They can easily hide into the sugarcane fields that dot the region. But the film shows that the saffron outfits were planning to turn it into Love Jihad for a long time before elections by circulating fake videos and providing money and liquor to unemployed youth, who can’t handle the increasing exposure to the ‘other’ world through mobiles and motorbikes.”
The film also suggests at the capitalist interest in the riots. The Sugar Mills in the region are running under debt for a long time. What the riots did was it divided Bhartiya Kisan Union that represents farmers’ interest in the region on communal lines leaving it in no condition to bargain for the price of sugarcane crop leave aside the crores that the mills owe to the farmers.
Meera alleges that at the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal the representative of the CBFC was trying to suggest that why they have dug so deep into the riots when no other media house tried to do so. The Tribunal found that the film is highly critical of one political party (BJP) and its top leadership by name and tends to give an impression of the said party’s involvement in communal disturbances. Meera, who is now knocking at the doors of Delhi High Court, begs to differ. “We went out to make the documentary with an open mind. It is during the course of our investigation that a chain of events emerged which pointed out towards the involvement of a party and groups that share its ideology. It is not an illogical juxtaposition of visuals or comments as it also holds the Samajwadi Party government responsible for becoming a moot spectator to the events.” At the same time, she adds, the film presents a positive picture because it also shows how many villages remained free from the fire of communal passions. “These are the villages where the elders saw through the agenda of the communal forces and asked the youngsters to exercise restraint.”
