'Our country is in a disease period..' says Amudhan R P
Amudhan R P is a documentary film maker and media activist from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He has made over 20 documentaries with the overriding theme injustice and the fight aganist it. He founded Marupakkam, a media activism group that is involved with making documentaries, organising regular screenings, film festivals and media workshops in and around Madurai along with local youth.
What was the motive behind the initiative- 'Marupakkam' ? How was it accomplished ?After completing M.A in Development Communication, i went straight to Delhi for the Documentary film making training. At that time, i was stuck with activist film making. There are many varieties in documentaries. Among them, in activist film making, making films are not only important but also screening of the films. A normal film maker can send his film to festivals or can sell it to the television station. But activist film maker should screen it; not only our own films, but also the works of other directors. Along with film making and screening, we should train youngsters for documentary making. Apart from screening films, we need to conduct film festivals. All these four things - making documentaries, organizing regular screenings, film festivals and media workshops, should be done for promoting activist film making. It cannot be done by a single person. It requires a group of friends- a community. That's why we have initiated Marupakkam.
The word 'Marupakkam' means 'the other side'. A subject which is told in mainstream also has an another side which the government and media will not inform the people. The medias are not independent. They are embedded. They are supported by the government. So, things which are told by government and media will be definitely one sided. That's why we are focusing on the other side to make audience(people) aware. Only after knowing both the sides the people should take a stand. They should not take a stand with a partial knowledge.
Inspired from 'Marupakkam', the youth under Kerala Shasthra Sahithya Parishath (KSSP) organized 'Grameena Chalachithra Vedhi' which conducted film screenings over 80 villages in Malappuram. How would you evaluate their activity ?It is a good initiative. Usually the film festivals, screening of documentaries and parallel movies will be concentrated on big cities. Thus it appears to be a elite practice. If we organize a screening in someplace and welcome everyone, those who has time and money to spend and those who are aware of this, will take part. Ordinary people is not aware of this. If we want to make them aware, we need to go to their own place. By organizing screenings in villages by evening, while the people are free from work they could see it. There by we can introduce parallel movies to ordinary people. Also, this serves as an exposure to the youngsters- the volunteers who is a part of this activism. Those who lives in cities gets an opportunity to observe the lives in villages. So by these activities you are disseminating the knowledge to people. At the same time, also you could learn many things from them by interacting. So there is a give and take process.
The recent sensational discussion in our country is about the rising intolerance. As a film maker, what are your concerns and opinion on this rising intolerance ?India is always an intolerant country. We cannot treat the dalits, tribes, women equally even now. The poor in India are tolerant towards the rich. The women are tolerant towards the men. The lower caste is tolerant towards the upper. So the oppressed is tolerant. Whenever the oppressed reacts or questions, the oppressor becomes intolerant and there emerges violence. If the oppressed never questions, the oppressor remains tolerant. So India is always intolerant. The reason for much more worse condition in our country is the present government.
In America a 14 year old boy Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing his home-made clock to the school. That incident was a mistake done by school authority or some policemen. But when came to know about this incident, President Barack Obama apologised. In India when Dadri incident happened, what was done by the Prime minister ? Killing a man by a mob over rumours in a civilized society is a barbaric act. Immediately Prime minister should have come out and condemn it. He didn't do it. Because his own party peoples are involved in it. The members of Narendra modi ministry and his political family supported the incident. He didn't opposed them. what does it mean ? He supports it or he doesn't care. There lies intolerance. During the Staines incident (1999, in Odisha) prime minister Vajpayee condemned it. Also during Gujarat riot incident, he condemned. But Modi doesn't care. So the situation is getting more dangerous. If we don't correct it, we will become like Pakistan. We have to remember what happened in Pakistan during 80's. When Zia-ul-Haq was the prime minister of Pakistan he banned music, cinema etc. In our country, if we stay quietly BJP is gonna decide every thing. BJP is not god. They are just one among the political parties. That's all.
The writers, film makers are protesting by returning their awards. Do you think it is good to protest in such a way ? Recently Kamal Hassan said giving back the awards is not a solution to the problem. What is your opinion on such protests ?See, the situation is very different now. We are all fighting against fascism. If the writers haven't given up the awards, so many people would have been killed by now. During that time, so many brutal things like Dadri incident were happening steadily. Writers were getting killed. The ministers and politicians were making very bad statements. So, returning awards was an act to protect the country. Because they gave up the awards, because they created pressure on government, because international agencies intervened, the situation came into control. The government still wasn't giving up. Then came Bihar elections. Because of the defeat in Bihar, they (government) are keeping quiet now.
So, What Kamal Hassan has said is totally wrong and he is a fraud. Look at the way he made films like Vishwaroopam, Hey ram. From the movies he has made, his ideology is evident. When his Film faced problems from Muslim groups, he said he is seriously thinking of leaving the country. Aamir Khan didn't say like that. He said, he felt very bad when his wife apprehended 'should we move out of India ?'. But Kamal Hassan has said he wants to leave India. Nobody said anything to him because he is a Brahmin. He recently visited Raj Thackeray saying they were old friends. Raj Thackeray is a goonda. So he (Hassan) is a friend of a goonda ?. How can we trust Kamal Hassan ? He is cheating Tamil people for long long time. He says he is a periyarist. He is not a periyarist; he is completely anti-periyar.
The central government recently put forward the initiative 'Digital India' which is considered as a bigger development. In your Musical video 'Vande mataram: a shit version' , we can see a non-glittering realistic India. So do you have an opinion that government's schemes are not focused on base?No one is trusting Modi's any schemes now. Everything is just hollow. Modi is considered as a superior or great guy only by his 'fans'. We even don't want to make fun of it; just ignore it. I feel all these Swachh Bharat, Digital India are NRI people's ambition. Modi is trying to please them. According to me, Modi can be a commerce minister. He always behaves like commerce minister, not as a prime minister. He thinks only about business. If a scheme like Swachh Bharat have to work in our country, the worker should get respect. If people has respect on workers, they will not throw wastes. Workers should be provided with good equipment, good salary and they get empowered. So, the worker should get empowered and people should change their mind set. Is there a scheme for this in Swachh Bharat ? No. Modi's any schemes are not working actually. Swachh Bharat is an insult on manual scavenging workers. Those workers don't even have glouse. They have no future at all. How come a scheme like Swatchh Bharat work under pathetic conditions of workers ?
When we talk about the growing intolerance, the south Indian states especially Kerala, is considered as much better.Do you think Kerala is resistive in some way ?Kerala is very independent. Keralites have to be proud about their state. There are Muslims, Hindus, Christians and they are heavenly uniform. But Kerala is losing their confidence of being a independent state. There are upper caste in Kerala. They don't want changes. They will be still salking about Land reform act during E.M.S. Namboothiripad time. They will be saying 'oh we had thousands of acres of land and the communist government came and took away all the lands'. Those peoples are part of RSS. They want to restore the conditions in Kerala which compelled Swami Vivekanda to call Kerala as a mental asylum.
That guy from Kerala, Rahul Easwar who is not a member of any political party and can be seen in TV discussions, represent that mind set. He wants to maintain the old tradition. He represent a group, who want to restore the 'mental asylum' period and want to destroy all the development achieved so far. But, How can we defeat that ? We have done it in Kerala, Tamil Nadu earlier. We need 'self respect'. If we have self respect, we will not listen to those mental patients. Periyar gave us self respect. Sree Narayana guru, Ayyankali and Communist party gave us the self respect. That is very essential. BJP is trying to destroy that self respect by continuously saying 'you are nothing without us'. They will never treat us equally. They will never consider us as equal human beings and never change their mindset. Some individuals may change. But it is there in their chromosome. Even after 2-3 generations, they will still have the same idea just like jews in Israel. Some peoples are just like that - thinking that they are superior to others. You cannot oppose by killing them, like Hitler. Then, what can we do? We should be aware, educate ourselves, sensible, sensitive and intelligent.
The caste system is just like liquor. It intoxicates us. From the moment we are intoxicated, we will behave abnormally. They are doing it in TN now. Same backward caste people who opposed Brahmins are becoming their slave by supporting BJP. The caste system makes us part of the crime. One cannot blame the upper class alone for the caste system. The other people are as bad as the upper class as they are intoxicated. We have already programmed in our mind that we are a nair or menon or whatever it is. We shut down that thought till some age. Once it is gonna come and wake us up. If you are weak, we will go behind it and gonna change. Is the upper caste people kills people of other community during the riots ? No. The so called backward class does. Upper class is just supervising it. The major threats across the world is Corporate economy and Religious fundamentalism. If you become weak, desperate, frustrated and pathetic, the religious fundamentalist will come and pick you up and make you part of the crime. Just like IS does. So you have to remain strong.
Though our country is passing through a worse period now, are you optimistic over the political atmosphere ?Of course, I am. Due to the present fascist government, we at least know that who our enemies are. So we are in a political war. Consider FTII students. They always made artistic films and they were like - 'other film makers are just video makers'. Now they are forced to become political. Modi taught them a good political lesson by putting Gajendra Chauhan as FTII chairman. Likewise, everyone is forced to respond and protest now. This is a wake up call. If we fall ill, we may take rest. Then we get time to look at the disease, take in medicines and at last we may freshly awake. So this is a disease period for our country. Actually this is a hopeful situation. Everybody is forced to think and react. We have to come out and behave responsibly. So i am very hopeful.
About the mainstream commercial movies ?Commercial movies are meant for business. No offence in that. But, We can talk to them, write about the films, and criticize. It's all in our own hands. They are making such (masala) movies since they have audience. Audience are provided with what they wish to have. So, We cannot blame the makers alone. If we wish for changes, we have to make changes.
Recently, Kerala education minister made a remark that as a minister and at a personal level, he do not approve of boys and girls sitting together. How this statement seems to you also by considering Kerala is highest in literacy rate ?It is actually an anti-women statement. One who is a fundamentalist and never wish for gender equality would say it. Sexual frustration is a bigger problem in our life. To prevent this, we need a free society in which boys and girls can mingle each other. If both genders mingle friendly each other, relax, there comes more freedom for women. These peoples are against such women liberation with a fundamentalist point of view.
About your latest work 'Dollar City' ?'Dollar City' is about Thirupur garment industry. It discusses how the industry there runs. The workers are paid with low wages, they have to work for 18 hours a day, no permanent employment is offered and they are totally exploited. Why is this happening? There is a concept of Gramsci namely 'manufacture of consent'. According to this, the oppressed is created and they will agree to the exploitation. The oppressor makes a consent and without forcing, oppressed agrees to the exploitation. Thirupur is a classy example for this one. The workers, trade unions- everybody accepts the exploitation. They consents. So i recorded those consensus and how they are made. How this mood is created. When you enter the city, you becomes a slave and agrees whatever the boss says.
Any influenced books or Film makers ?Flaming Feets by D.R. Nagaraj and Hindu, Hindi, India by S.V. Rajadurai - Both are important works. Coming to film makers, Patricio Guzmán- a Chilean director and Dennis O'Rourke an Australian director. Both are very inspiring. I like their style of making.
