| | 7 | Patwardhan’s first full documentary, made on Super-8, inaugurated the independent documentary movement in India. It chronicles the Navnirman students’ movement in Gujarat (1974) which eventually led to the mass movement of Jayaprakash Narayan in Bihar, culminating in the Emergency being declared (26 June 1975). The film interprets the JP agitation as a latter-day and more radicalised version of Gandhi’s call for non-violent land reform, this time directed against Indira Gandhi’s rule. It includes several speeches by Narayan himself, and one direct interview, and shows the rallies he led in Patna (1974) and New Delhi (1975). Completed before the declaration of the Emergency, it has an epilogue on the early days of the state crackdown in the months of June and July. Extensively screened by underground groups during the Emergency, the film inaugurates several of the director’s typical documentary strategies, including the use of his own voice and his interviews while holding the camera. Along with its sequel, Prisoners of Conscience (1978), the film represents definitive coverage of the political conflicts, as well as the rhetoric, characterising those turbulent years. |