Fri July 04, 2014

THE CITIZEN BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Shubhradeep Chakravorty is a filmmaker with a conscience. He was earlier a journalist and took to documentary filmmaking after the Gujarat violence in 2002. His first film was on the Gujarat violence and his second inspired by the murder of lawyer Shahid Azmi and explores the life threatening conditions in which defence lawyers working on terror related cases operate.

This time Chakravorty has teamed up with Meera Chaudhary to direct a film on the riots of Muzaffarnagar and its socio-political fallout. It investigates the acts of violence before, during and after the riots with the role of the leaders of the right wing political parties highlighted. The documentary also tells stories of sanity, where the Jats helped the Muslims and vice versa. It also touches upon the ongoing sugarcane agitation in western Uttar Pradesh, and the impact of the violence, given the mill owners leverage due to the split in the Bharatiya Kisan Union.

The documentary ends on a positive note with a “life moves on” message as the victims try to build a new life in a resettlement colony.

Needless to say the documentary has just been rejected by the Censor Board.