What is Jung aur Aman (War and Peace):
It is a 90 min documentary film, filmed over three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the USA following nuclear tests in the Indian sub-continent. War and Peace is a documentary journey of peace activism in the face of global militarism and war.
About the director:
Anand Patwardhan is not known to many movie goers but his name is not unknown to people who appreciate documentary style of film-making. Anand Patwardhan has been making political documentaries for nearly three decades now. His films have diverse and controversial issues that are at the crux of social and political life in India.
Most of his films have been banned by state television channels in India because of its controversial content but Patwardhan has at successfully challenged the censorship rules in the court.
Patwardhan has been an activist ever since he was a student. At an early age, he volunteered for movements like the anti-Vietnam War movement; volunteered in Caesar Chavez’s United Farm Worker’s Union; worked in Kishore Bharati, a rural development and education project in central India; and had also participated in the Bihar anti-corruption movement about three decades ago.
He has been active in movements for housing rights of the urban poor, for communal harmony and participated in movements against unjust, unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism.
About War and Peace:
The film is framed by the murder of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, an act whose portent and poignancy remains undiminished half a century later. For the filmmaker, whose family was immersed in the non-violent Gandhian movement, the sub-continent’s trajectory towards unabashed militarism is explored with sorrow, though the film captures stories of resistance along the way.
Amongst these is a visit to the ’’enemy country’’ of Pakistan, where contrary to expectations, Indian delegates are showered by affection not only by their counterparts in the peace movement but by uninitiated common folk.
The film moves on to examine the costs being extracted from citizens in the name of national security. From the plight of residents living near the nuclear test site to the horrendous effects of uranium mining on local indigenous populations, it becomes abundantly clear that, contrary to a myth first created by the U.S.A, there is no such thing as the ’’peaceful Atom’’.
War and Peace slips seamlessly from a description of home made jingoism to focus on how an aggressive United States has become a role model, its policy of ’’Might is Right’’ only too well-absorbed by aspiring elites of the developing world. As we enter the 21st century, war has become perennial, enemies are re-invented and economies are inextricably tied to the production and sale of weapons. In the moral wastelands of the world memories of Gandhi seem like a mirage that never was, created by our thirst for peace and our very distance from it.
Accolades won by War and Peace:
Grand Prize, Earth Vision Global Environment Festival, Tokyo, 2002
International Critics’ Award (FIPRESCI), Sydney Film Festival, 2002
Best Film/Video, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2002
International Jury Prize, Mumbai International Film Festival, 2002
Gold Award, Indian Documentary Producers’ Association, 2002
Best Documentary, International Video Festival, Kerala, 2003
Best Documentary, Karachi International Film Festival, 2003
Silver Dhow, Zanzibar International Film Festival, 2003
Best Non-Fiction, National Film Awards, India, 2004
My thoughts:
I liked the movie better that 9/11 and one of the main reasons for that is the humour and sarcasm that Anandji has brought out in this collage of images from various countries. One of the most hilarious shot was when in a foreign exchange agency in Pakistan, the camera is focused on a World Map. The World Map has – ‘after 100 years’ written next to it in the bracket and it shows that Pakistan has captured not only India in that World Map but also the rest of the world, including the Indian Ocean, which is mentioned as the Muslim Ocean! Can you beat that?! There are also a lot of sensitive moments in the film that forces one to think about the pitiful state of the ‘common man’ in a country and also about how politicians misuse and misguide people for their selfish interests.
I highly recommend all my MS buddies to go and watch this film. It may not be a ‘popcorn’ movie but the content of this film will touch your soul and will stay with for a long time.