Ram Ke Naam Chronicle of a Demolition Foretold Anand Patwardhan’S Film Reviewed by Mrinal Pande
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Films Ram Ke Naam Chronicle of a demolition Foretold Anand Patwardhan’s film reviewed by Mrinal Pande the young men (there are no women) now. But the documentary reminds us watching this video, their eyes of its legacy—the Ram Janmabhoomi glistening with tears, jaws tightly vs. Babri Masjid battle. It carries a clenched with emotion. Then follows warning for the future too, as voiced an interview with one Mahant Ram in the slogan. ‘Abhi to yeh Jhanki hai, Sevak Das Shastri who, in typical VHP Kashi—Mathura baki hai!’ phraseology, confirms the miraculous One of the forlorn neglected happenings and deflects some voices of sanity in the documentary uncomfortable questions by saying, belongs to Mahant Lal Das, who was “If I say more, the government might appointed caretaker of the Ram temple put me in jail.” by the courts. He reiterates that Anand Patwardhan’s documentary The Ram Lalla sequence in the Muslims never restricted entry to the film on Ayodhya, Ram Ke Naam, was video struck a responsive chord area and that those who are inciting completed two years ago, after the somewhere. Then it occurred to me the youth to wreck the mosque and momentous happenings of October that it was startingly similar to B.R. build a temple there are playing the 30, 1990. The film makes interesting Chopra’ s version of Mahabharata politics of votes. There are also viewing today because it provides screened on Doordarshan. In this interviews with women from slums documentary evidence of the feelings sequence, when the baby Krishna is who say they have nothing to say and attitudes that began to take born, lightening strikes, locks fall off because they are poor and illiterate. visible shape with Advani ‘s abortive and gates open on their own. Thus But in sheer contrast to such self- Somnath to Ayodhya rathyatra. It is does the Jain Studio, and by effacement is the aggressive posture almost as if one were face to face with implication Hindutva get linked up of the young Bajrang Dal the chronicle of a demolition foretold. with Chopra’s brand of entertainment. representative from Bihar, the owner The documentary opens with a The scenes that follow in the film of an ‘electrical business’ who says vinegary voice barking out details of are by now only too familiar: Muslim they shall remove anyone messily and the proposed rathyatra by Advaniji, crowds bewailing their lack of access by force if need be, to build the and quickly pans to the milieu in to justice, scenes of wanton temple. The other member of the Dal, Ayodhya (Shri Ram Fast Food joints, destruction of property in the a law student, fends off queries about men on motorbikes with saffron communal riots of 1986. Remember the historical evidence regarding headbands and sunglasses, piles of Shah Bano? Remember how the Ram’s date of birth. All he can sanctified ram shilas (bricks)) and innocuous issue of a women’s right eventually say is, “I am a law student. then goes on to show an excerpt from to maintenance was plucked out from They do not teach history in law a video prepared by the Vishwa Hindu its normal context by the ultra right classes.” Parishad (VHP) at the Jain Studios, groups on both sides, then made a Advani’s fiery cavalcade enters called Bhaye Pragat Kripala. The pretext for bickering about personal Bihar in the film. A devotee stands movie informs viewers through laws and pampered minorities and with folded hands, arti and flowers, various trick shots about the sudden threatened identities of groups that waiting for the rath. It is dark by the and miraculous appearance of a divine were allowed to have a special status? time the cars come tunnelling through baby (Ram Lalla) inside the mosque The riots that followed, the - the dark. Then it’s broad daylight and in 1949, claiming his birthplace. The backtracking and passing of the time for public meetings. Glimpses of camera then focuses on the faces of Muslim Women’s Bill are all history fiery political rhetoric follow. The No.73 (Nov.-Dec. 1992) 39 CPI(M) leader decries the yatra and objections to fudging of tax arrears of himself to be a Khatri — Khatri — Khatri. mocks at the whipped up fervor of the the VHP, says sadly, “When they In India whenever you approach BJP. The BJP rally is addressed by film sacked me, I knew that the rule of law people with cameras and a mike, you star Shatrughan Sinha. Crowds are in the country had died.” get enough to put a picture together. thick everywhere. There is a sound of Somehow after this, the encounter But, after December 1992, one suspects clapping when Laloo Yadav asks with nearby villagers who voted that not only anti-media hostility in Advani to stop or else. Words, like neither Congress nor BJP but CPI(M) Sangh parivar cadres but also a certain drops of dew, evaporate as .the heat because the former two parties were secret guilt trip within other parties, mounts and riot scenes fill the screen using religion as a platform, fails to would perhaps block off most pertinent once again. The drunk Janata Dal MLA inspire hope for the future safety of queries and make the filming of an from Haryana declares he is joining the communal harmony in the town. The honest sequel rather difficult. BJP. BJP by now, to the likes of him, last words belong to kar sevaks who Patwardhan’s documentary is a justifies everything from capitalism to broke through the BJP cordon on relentless reminder of the rare an aggressive anti-Mandal stand. Even October 30, in a hail of stones and commodity called truth. Though booze. “What I drink was called som sticks, and attempt to justify Godse’s technically or editorially it could be rasa and drunk by all those heroes in murder of Gandhi. “Whosoever considered flawed on some counts, it Puranas” the MLA says. blocks our path shall be removed like should be compulsory watching for all The balding income tax him,” declares an old man who carries Indians who want to understand how commissioner, an MBA from the USA a blanket on his shoulders, and hatred Ayodhya happened and why. who was axed for having dared raise in his eyes for the media and declares Books A Shield of Coolest Air by Marion Molteno, Shola Books, London, 1992 Reviewed by Kavita Charanji by the events in Somalia because it carries the scars of her traumatic past. delineates the human tragedy of the Her doctor husband was tortured to situation. It is a powerful work of death in prison for the “offence” of fiction that traces the fortunes of setting up a community project in a Somalian refugees who seek asylum hospital. Her son has taken up arms in London. There is Haleemo, alone against the military regime because he in the city with her two small children is angry both about what it has done There is a surfeit of information and anxious about the fate of her two to his father and murder of his cousin about recent events in Somalia, most older children left behind in Hargesia. who tried to prevent soldiers from of it from a detached political Similarly, Anab struggles to make a raping his sister. It seems unlikely that perspective. We are told about the life for herself with her young Anab will see him alive again. In similar inter-clan rivalry, the anarchic daughter, but lives with uncertainty fashion, the military routinely takes conditions that prevail in the country as her 18-year-old son battles the away supporters of the Somali and international efforts to provide military government in Somalia. Other National Movement (SNM) at relief to a starving population. characters to flee political persecution gunpoint, detains people without trial, Unfortunately, a huge abyss seems are Mohammed and Nuh. and tortures prisoners. to divide the lay reader from what is Though set in London, the Such images of oppression remain perceived as the “Somalian problem” back-drop of the novel is Somalia. etched in one’s consciousness as because it seems remote from our own Each of the Somalian characters is impersonal news reports do not, experience. testimony to the senseless cruelties because they seem to be the first hand Marion Molteno’s first novel, A of a despotic military regime. Anab is accounts of individuals, even if Shield of Coolest Air, makes it a typical case in point. Though she voiced through fictitious characters. impossible for us to remain unmoved maintains a calm, dignified exterior, she If it is possible to fault Molteno, it is 40 MANUSHI for leaving gaps in the political political stand — and suffers guilt on agencies and individuals being able context of the story. It would, for this score. Yet, at the human level, she to influence the decisions of policy instance, have helped to know more is able to relate to Haleemo’s plight. makers. It is small and insubstantial about the man-made famine to which This propels her to undertake a efforts, the “shield of air” of the title, international attention has been political campaign with Hassan (with such as the cam-paign for Haleemo’s riveted and about the inter-clan rivalry whom she later falls in love) and children, that can sometimes work. that has plunged the country into ACRAS for refugee status for Whether Molteno’s own book anarchy. Molteno’s novel, published Haleemo. provides sufficient basis for such in 1992, is located instead in 1990 when Haleemo and the two children she optimism is debatable.