Firaaq - A thought provoking, disturbing and impactful movie

Recently I attended the screening of the Hindi movie 'Firaaq' directed by very talented and widely acclaimed actress Nandita Das at Yale University. I watched this movie before, but I was interested in knowing the director's views on this movie and the reasons behind making it. I was also interested in how an internationally diverse audience at Yale reacts to this very disturbing but powerful movie. The movie tries to capture events in the lives of some people one month after the 2002 Godhra riots. One should watch the movie to know the actual plot and understand the characters so I am not going to discuss that. Every character in this movie is very well-written and brilliantly portrayed by all actors.

The post is not about Nandita Das or the movie itself but the impact it had on me. I am interested in discussing three characters, Aarti, Sameer, and Mohsin who stayed with me after watching the movie. I was touched by the trauma of Aarti (a character brilliantly portrayed by Deepti Naval), maybe because I have seen many people who face such dilemmas and trauma. Many people want to fight the injustice happening around them but can not do it for various reasons. Some can't raise their voice because they don't know how to do it or they don't even know that they have a voice and it can be used. Some don't do this because they think it is not their job, or it is against their culture or it will be a disrespect to people against whom they have to stand. Such people keep silent because of so many reasons and suffer quietly from the inside. They blame themselves for their failure not to help others in need of help. I always wondered are these people guilty of not doing their duty? Can we blame them for not standing up when they saw injustice being done right in front of them? Or shall we try to understand their problems and their inability to gather the courage to oppose the age-old traditions, patriarchal or feudal culture which they are taught to respect and preserve? This conflict is very deep and Deepti Naval portrayed this character very well.

Another character is Sameer Shaikh (played by another talented actor, Sanjay Suri), his first name doesn't denote his religious identity as this name is common among both Muslims and Hindus in India. So, wherever possible he prefers to tell only his first name as he is worried that people might judge him differently if they know his religion. Because of this many people around him don't know his religion, they all assume that he is a Hindu. He is married to a Hindu girl so that makes this disguise even easy for him. People from minority groups living in very hostile social environments may easily associate with this character. It is not only about religious minority groups but also people from lower castes also can easily understand his dilemma and helplessness. They all do this because they feel people in society will look at them differently if they know about their religion or caste. Sameer's character is a slap on the biased mindset of our society where we look at people from particular religions, castes, or genders with prejudice and bias.

The last character is that little boy Mohsin who lost his both parents during the riots. He only knows about the death of his mom as he saw it but doesn't know about his dad's death, no one close to him dares to tell him this truth. He is desperately in search of his dad as he doesn't want to live in the camp shelter made for riot victims. During his search for his father, he gets exposed to the harsh realities of our society at that young age. He learns to hide his identity by changing his real name to some Hindu name (Mohan) just to escape from further scrutiny and trouble. He looks like another Sameer in making who is taught that his religion means something to hide from others, something others around him who are different from him (Hindus) don't like. He starts hating Hindus without even knowing who they are, he only knows them as his mom's killers. This all makes him lose interest in all childhood activities, when kids of his age invite him to play he doesn't want to play. His character poses some very serious and disturbing questions to us. What kind of world are you offering to me? Why I can't tell my real name without worrying about what will happen to me after I tell it? Why do some people kill others for no reason? Why do people hate each other? What was my mom's fault that she was murdered? His character in the movie is too young to ask these questions but when he stares in our eyes at the end of the movie his eyes ask these questions.

As a society or individuals, if we can solve Aarti's problems by offering her required strength to stand up whenever required, or remove Sameer's fears associated with his religious identity and at least create a friendly atmosphere for kids like Mohsin who don't grow up with hatred about certain community in their mind, I can say that we all did our job. Until then we all need to work hard so that there won't be another Sameer who is forced to hide his religious identity or another Mohsin who is wondering what kind of world he is living in. This movie doesn't entertain you, it is not supposed to entertain but it engages its audience successfully with its characters. Firaaq asks many questions through its characters, and it stirs our consciousness. We can choose to answer these questions and work hard towards solving the problems associated with these questions or we can also choose to ignore them, look the other way as if nothing has happened, and move on and wait for the next communal riot, the choice is ours.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]