Anand Patwardhan: ‘I don’t see how you can take the art out of politics or the politics out of art

The G5A cultural centre in Mumbai has organised an Anand Patwardhan retrospective between October 2 and 5. The programme – featuring 10 out of his 13 documentaries and two short films – covers the breadth of the 75-year-old filmmaker’s thematic concerns over five decades, including human rights, majoritarianism, hyper-nationalism, casteism, ecological damage and protest movements.

Patwardhan hasn’t just consistently held a mirror to injustice, but also explored its possible roots as well as the ways in which it can be countered. He has frequently faced censorship, fighting battles in the courts and beyond to ensure that his films can be seen by the public.

Patwardhan’s first-full length documentary was Waves of Revolution (1974), about the Bihar Movement steered by Jayaprakash Narayan against Indira Gandhi’s repressive regime. He has borne witness to a country betrayed by its leaders but redeemed by morally upright citizens who abide by a historical commitment to non-violence and a Constitution that protects all Indians regardless of their beliefs.

The G5A programme includes Prisoners of Conscience (1978), about activists who were arrested at the time of the Emergency in 1975 and remained behind bars after the Emergency ended in 1977. A Time To Rise (1981), made with Jim Monro, follows Punjabi farm labourers in Canada forming a union against exploitative working conditions.

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