Firaaq: there are no easy truths
iView Author: Ullas Marar (Bangalore, India)
Email: ullasmarar [at] gmail.com
Firaaq : there are no easy truths
When I walked into the movie hall for the late night show, I knew very little about Firaaq. I typically don’t read any reviews; neither do I read synopses. To me, the best way to enjoy a movie is by being a part of the story and reacting to each situation. I did know that this is a Nandita Das-directed film that talks about the communal divide in present-day Gujarat. Being an Amdavadi myself and more importantly, having seen the horrors of the 2002 communal riots from relatively closer quarters, I was naturally interested in what Ms. Das had to say on it, a good seven years later.
The very first thing that stands out is the detailing. The film manages to capture the idiom of the walled city and the general mannerisms so well that a true Amdavadi can almost smell the city and its pols (the traditional clustered housing that was built in the olden days). The loudness of speech and behaviour, the local language (the word tophaan for riots, pul-paar for western Ahmedabad…) and the dressing sense exude authenticity.
But that wasn’t the only reason I was glued to the screen. Right from the first scene which shows two gravediggers fighting back their rage and tears as they bury scores of people from their faith, it’s clear that this is not going to be an easy watch. Then the parallel tracks unfold.
– That of a middle class servile Hindu housewife (Deepti Naval), who is haunted by her failure to save a woman from a rampaging mob. Traumatised, she pours a drop of hot oil on her arm every time the thought haunts her. What’s worse, she has a right wing bigot for a husband (Paresh Rawal), who sees nothing wrong in the fact that his brother raped a Muslim woman, or in the fact that he and his brother looted a Muslim entrepreneur’s store. On the contrary, his grouse is with the English news channels that cover the plight of the victims. As he says something to the effect of, “jota rehjo, have to aakhi duniya aa loko ne thokshe” (have fun watching, the whole world is going beat them up). The only reason he wants the tophaan to end is so that he can get a good meal again. I can’t praise Paresh Rawal’s performance enough for the way he makes you hate his character and yet think, “I know somebody exactly like him.”
– That of an affluent Muslim entrepreneur (Sanjay Suri) married to a Hindu woman (Tisca Chopra). The store he jointly owns with a Hindu entrepreneur is looted and burnt down as part of the selective targeting. Scared for his safety, he decides to move bag and baggage to Delhi. Sanjay Suri plays his part with an ease that makes this one of his best ever performances (at least for me). This is probably the character that actually speaks directly to the audience. His language is neither as cryptic as Khan Sahab’s nor as underplayed as the housewife’s (Deepti Naval). Yet, I thought it was the weakest link in the movie. The minute a character starts justifying to or debating with the audience, it stops being ‘his’ story. I would much rather the film sucks me into a situation and makes me think than it gets behind a lectern and starts addressing me.
– That of the ageing musician (Naseeruddin Shah) who is forever optimistic and oblivious to the hatred around him. He doesn’t know the fear that keeps his helper (Raghuvir Yadav) awake at night. He doesn’t see any merit in watching the television. It doesn’t matter to him that none of his students are from his mazhab (faith). At first look, he looks to be in a state of denial. But the truth is, he is just oblivious. His doesn’t grieve the death of fellow Muslims; he grieves the death of human beings at the hands of human beings. Having come to expect nothing less than perfection from Naseeruddin Shah, all I can say is that he is at his usual best. One of my picks of the movie is his shock when he sees that the rioters have destroyed the mazaar of Sufi poet Vali Gujarati. For once, Khan Sahab looks shorn of all optimism and looks as vulnerable and victimized as any other riot-affected person. Brilliant!
There are many more tracks in the movie, that of a group of victims who get together to look for a revolver so that they can avenge their personal loss, that of the girl who is torn between her love for her best friend whose house is burnt and her allegiance to the perpetrator, who is one of her own and finally, that of the little boy Mohsin who escapes the relief camp to look for his father who we understand is missing.
Firaaq’s victory is in the fact that nothing is sugar-coated and no blow is softened. The filmmaker knows what she wants to say and she says it without flinching. The film makes it clear that a Sameer Sheikh will remain a Sameer Sheikh wherever he goes; he will have to bear the cross of the crimes that someone professing his faith commits millions of miles away. It’s not right but it’s just the way it is. The victory of the film is in the heartbreaking revelation that Mohsin has nowhere to go but the relief camp, and in Khan Sahab’s uneasy realization that his music does not yield enough power to withstand the savage hatred. There is no hope on offer. There is no moment of comeuppance either, for the culprits. Nandita Das shows us the aftermath of the genocide as the victims moved on, not because they saw hope, but because they were bludgeoned into submission. They took the blow on their chin because they were too scared or weak to fight back.
If the film falters somewhere, it’s in Sanjay Suri’s track. When his character confronts a cop and tells him that he is not Sameer Desai but Sameer Sheikh, you see the film taking a ‘populist’ turn. You just know it was coming. You can even guess that he will eventually end up staying in the city to fight his fears. That redemption completely goes against the flow of a movie that otherwise stays grounded and real. That apart, the movie stays true to its motive (as I understand it) and rides supremely on the back of stunningly good performances and a no-nonsense script.
Often, when any discussion on the riots comes up, my friends argue about the futility of raking it up every now and then. “Fine, it happened, so what? Are we to feel guilty about it for the rest of our lives? Let’s move on”, or “Gujarat has changed so much for the better and yet, all you can do is hark back to something that happened years ago…forget it.” With this film, Nandita Das looks these people straight in the eye and says, “I won’t let you forget.” Firaaq doesn’t want anyone to go home feeling warm and fuzzy. It’s not a film that can be judged by how much it entertained you, rather it’s a film that should be judged by how it made you go home and feel guilty all over again, a good seven years later.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I agree with your every word!! its a spellbound film… a must watch… the authenticity that she has brought to the whole thing is brilliant….
“'¬Fine, it happened, so what? Are we to feel guilty about it for the rest of our lives? Let's move on'®, or '¬Gujarat has changed so much for the better and yet, all you can do is hark back to something that happened years ago'–forget it.'®”
By that token, we should not be making movies on the Holocaust or Racism in Deep South, though both Germany and US have actually moved on a lot from then.
very well written…firaaq is the most sophisticated and honest indian film of recent times. nandita’s aesthetics and honesty to her craft is remarkable. is such a beautiful film. i love the restraint with which she has told whatever she wanted to. to me..that’s what makes the film so powerful. it stayed with me. she’s never in your face nor is she trying to hard to prove a point or her intellect.very mature cinema
Nandita Das is just another pseudo-secular pseudo-liberal who cannot think beyond Gujarat. It is fashionable to keep crying about the sufferings of the Muslims as this would ensure great reviews from the pseudo secular media. How about a movie on the 300,000 Kashmiri Hindus living as refugees in their own country. Or a movie on the 58 children and women burnt alive by a fanatical, fundamentalist mob. Why is no one talking about the Hindus killed in the Gujarat riot? India is filled with hypocrites like Nandita Das, a mediocre actress who will definitely turn out to be a mediocre filmaker.
Ratnakar, why not a movie on the greatest holocaust in human history: the massacre of millions of Hindus by the invading Mughal/Turk/Persian armies. Why not a movie on the Marad killings (poor Hindu fishermen killed by Islamic fundamentalists), or on the Coimbatore bomblast which killed 50 people, or on the sufferings of the poor Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan? Nandita Das is a cheap, third class liar? Firaaq has to condemned to the dustbins of history.
In continuation of my earlier posts, more Hindus were killed in Kashmir in ‘89-’90 than Muslims in Gujarat ‘02. No one shed a drop of tear for the Hindus then or even now. Where were Nandita Das, Arundhati Roy, Rahul Dholakia, Tehelka then?
It’s funny how we get labelled like that…every time I go back to Pakistan for holidays and have anything negative to say about Muslim extremists or state-sponsored terrorism or even their sympathisers , I’m labelled pseudo-secular by some of my cousins…
I wonder if I make a movie tomorrow just about how the Kashmiri Pundits have suffered, will I still be a pseudo-secular pseudo-liberal for only showing the plight of the Hindus?
Or does it not work that way? I’m not even being sarcastic. I’m highly amused by the label of being pseudo-anything. It’s such a fashionable word to use nowadays.
@ Raj Balakrishnan
Can’t agree more on it!!! I went with so much of expectations to the film….i was shocked to see how biased the film was!!! I mean…if u r trying to show what u did in Firaaq….please also show how a certain community in Gujarat(elsewhere too, i suppose)used to celebrate every time Pakistan defeated India in cricket….What abt that??? What abt a certain channel that became so biased that it had forecasted the fate of the elections!!!Which country in the world would tolerate such behaviour?? Is taking side of the minority is the only way to feel secular??? Well..i guess the people of Gujarat have already replied to people like these by voting in huge numbers!!!
@ Chicken Pakoda,
We have made films in past which were realistic, had the punch & yet were not pseudo-secular….Bombay, Hey Raam & Black Friday are 3 brilliant examples!!! Films like Firaaq should be condemned forthrightly….
Raj
If somebody were to make a good movie on all the events that you mentioned, it would still need to be acclaimed in the same vein as Firaaq.
Abhishek
Taking the side of the minority is definitely not the only way to be secular. But taking their side is not ‘un’secular either. Movies should be made on issues that the filmmaker feels passionate about, and that includes Kashmiri Pandits, Gujarat riots, anti-Sikh riots, everything…while we are on the topic of Pandits, may I recommend a documentary, “Tell them the Tree they had Planted has now Grown” by Ajay Raina, which deals with the same subject.
Ratnakar
Precisely my point.
Anandi & Bhavesh
Thanks…
Ullas,
Such catechisms from our erudite friends, who see a “quisling” in Nandiata Das, will come naturally because she chose a subject and made a movie that debunk our shallowness. While i have not seen this move, based on what i read here,it rekindles my memory of Garam Hawa by M. S. Sathyu
and the famous shayeeri…”Jo door se kartein hain toofaan ka nazara, unke liye toofaan udhar bhi hai idhar bhi, beh jaoge jo dhaare mein to ban jaoge dhara, yeh waqt ka aayelaan udhar bhi hai idhar bhi”
@Raj Balakrishnan
Firaaq is a creative masterpiece. It’s out there made by a Hindu for everyone to see or not to see. As for why no films are made on Kashmiri Pundits, Marad killings, Coimbatore blasts etc. thats probably a question you should ask yourself and answer yourself. Though I dont expect it, I hope you understand what that means.
@Rakesh
I’m afraid wrong kind of hopes are being rekindled in you…Garam Hawa was an excellent document of partition times…it was not biased…Firaaq comes nowhere close…
@Suresh
No one is doubting the creativity…it is the intention that stems for the ideology…You say the film is made by a hindu…but leftist intellectuals have long given up on this religion…which is alright for me…but somehow they feel a strange enmity towards hindus…their natural reaction towards various events would prove this point…
@ Rakesh
First go n see Firaaq. U’ll realize how criminal it is to compare it to a classic like Garam hawa!!!
@ Suresh
Even i feel that the film is superb cinematically. But wht abt the intentions?????? Isn’t it the film makers’ responsibility to put forth an unbiased account of events??? If not then Firaaq is as good as a Deshdrohi!!!! Hope u get my point….
Take Hey ram’s reference for this matter. I can remember, as the film unfolds, it only shows all the negative points abt Gandhi & few of the people had even clapped in one of the scenes where one of the character says something insulting abt him. But later on, when Saket Raam realizes gandhi’s virtues…its simply spell-binding!!!
Or Black Friday…..we are able to see even Tiger Memon’s perspective without feeling any bias in the intentions of the writer or film maker!!! Even though he abuses whole Mumbai!!! Such is the precision that is required when u make films on such sensitive topic.
Hello Raj,
Were you molested by Nandita Das when you were a child?
Quite frankly, any intelligent life form would take a kind of ‘agnostic’ view when it comes to commenting about the film-making abilities of a person, the subject ought not to matter…the way it is captured and presented does.
Seems, you are quite frustrated that a ‘Hindu’ incident was not covered.
Suffering is the same whether Muslim or Hindu.
Wonder if a Muslim cry of pain would be different than your pathetic ‘Hindu’ yelp during a horrific genital mutilation… hmmm…
For the record…I am a Hindu and proud of it…quite frankly your contribution to the otherwise wonderful content in this page is at best, pedestrian.
Or not! Considering the rise of the likes of Mutaliks and Varun Gandhis!!; you are en vogue!!….Way to go Einstien!!
Perchance….Mutalik, Raj Thakrey, etc are your heros ?
Adios..Whacko!!
P.S:- Pls do not bother responding ‘in cheek’; I would not be passing through here again…. But on the other hand a raving stupid Muslim-hating Hindu fanatic like you can hardly be equipped to such a retort!! :-D
No one is hating any community over here!!! We are just trying to understand what prompts people like ND to take sides of one community & completely ignore the other perspective. Fortuately…the common man in India has never been biased & thats why we have seen heroes like APJ abdul kalam, Azharuddin,Maulana abdul kalaam, SRK, Aamir etc.
The point is if u don’t know the common man in Gujarat (Or may be u know of a certain community only) then plz dnt try & attempt a so called realistic film on a sensitive subject like riots & its aftermath.
What is wrong is wrong….dnt be fashionable (rather psedu-intellectual) & support any one side. Don’t try & make a consensus that only a certain community was molesteted in the country.
hey dude me hvnt seen tht movie yet bt after reading ur blog will dfntly purchse th cd wil watch it man.
@Incubus
What an outburst!?!?!
My guess is that Incubus is somebody called Vishwa Mehta, right so?