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Films based on real-life incidents have always raised the most intense controversies. A film based on a real-life incident never fails to stir the hornet’s nest. The ability to provoke a sharp and widespread social debate is the most powerful function of a film based on a controversial theme. Director Raj Kumar
Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica is a fast-paced thriller, based
on the famous Jessica Lall murder case, which hit the headlines some
years back. Jessica, a young model, was shot while trying her hand at
bartending because she refused to serve drinks after the closing
hours. When the accused managed to go scot-free by exploiting his
political connections, her sister Sabrina (Vidya Balan) and an
investigative television journalist Meera Gaity (Rani Mukerji) leave
no stone unturned`A0to get the accused, Manish, behind the bars. The
film revolves around the relentless struggle of Sabrina and Meera in
their pursuit for justice. The subject matter was very sensitive but
the director has taken all pains to bring it within the realm of
cinema and has done justice to the spirit of the story.
Similarly, Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Lajja was inspired by the gangrape and gruesome murder of 40-year-old Dalit woman Siya Dulari by upper caste people in a village near Kanpur. After the rape, Siya was burnt alive in the courtyard of her house. The incident shook Raj Kumar Santoshi and finally led to the making of Lajja, a statement on the oppression of women in both rural and urban India. The film recounts the story of four women — Maithali, Janki, Ramdulari, and Vaidehi — all names of Sita. Drawing relevance to real-life situations, the film made people raise questions that while our society has progressed, women continue to remain exploited and incidents of rape, kidnapping and murder remain unchecked. Lajja is the poignant story of those women, who fall prey to man’s malevolence but continue their fight against oppression. The movie satirises the honour with which women are placed in society. It made a shocking statement that in a land where women are worshipped, they continue to be tortured, abused and humiliated. Vinay Shukla’s Godmother was based on the life of Santokben Jadeja, the feared don of Jamnagar. The debutant director set the rise, fall and victory of a strong woman politician in an authentic milieu. Rambhi (Shabana Azmi) has a strong but silent presence initially while her husband copes with making a living as a factory worker. His qualities of leadership make him go places — from a union leader to a thriving truck business and then to politics. After the murder of her husband, Rambhi turns a new leaf in her life. The graph of Rambhi’s personality is fascinating. Her compassion and ruthless cunning, the awareness of her thirst for power, the dulling of conscience and its final awakening — all this is finely meshed with external events when caste and communal politics overwhelm the individual.`A0The portrayal of a politician woman was so authentic that a woman politician of Gujarat’s Mer community held up the release, crying libel. Shyam Benegal’s Samar was also inspired by an incident in Madhya Pradesh following the installation of a water pump in a Dalit basti and the upper caste’s protest to it.`A0It was a sarcastic denunciation of the social evil of ‘untouchability’. Based on a true incident between a Dalit and the headman of his village in Madhya Pradesh, this ‘film within a film’ shows a film unit erupting into the village, where the incident took place. This is where both villagers and the filmstars play their own part. The personification reaches a climax when actors playing the ‘Dalit’ (a real one in life) and the headman come to loggerheads, fiction bursting into reality. It was a powerful film against social ostracism and cultural prejudices. Benegal’s Sardari Begum portrayed the love, career and struggles of the celebrated eponymous singer of the 20th century, accidentally killed during`A0the riots between Hindus and Muslims in New Delhi. Sardari’s free way of life is disliked by politicians, Hindus and Muslims alike. A young journalist, sent on location to investigate the aging singer, discovers that she was her aunt, who had been banished by her family because a ‘decent’ lady could not become an artiste, performing in public and in addition far from being a paragon of virtue. Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen traced the career of Phoolan Devi, a leader of the gang of dacoits and spokesperson for the Dalits.`A0Phoolan was the heroine of the film, which had unrelenting and breathless action with large doses of sex and violence. She surrendered to the authorities and spent some time in the prison awaiting trial, during which she dictated her memoirs. Released with a pardon, she was elected to Parliament in 1996 on the crest of political movement, which ensured that the lower caste clout would be a reality for Indian politics to reckon with. R. K. Nayyar’s Yeh Raastey Hain Pyar Ke was inspired by the famous Nanavati case, where`A0a naval officer, on learning about his wife’s involvement with his best friend, shot him down and surrendered himself before law. Leela Naidu played the erring wife. The angle of loneliness to justify her affair was added to pacify the orthodox audience. Sunil Dutt played the naval officer, an interesting role for he was both the victim and the aggressor. In Kamla, Jagmohan Mundhra`A0took up a subject inspired by a real-life incident (the court case of The Indian Express v/s Kamla). While investigating a story on the tribal customs, journalist Ashwani Sarn, traded a tribal girl, Kamla, whom he brought home to justify his point. The incident evoked social and moral debates, raising the ethical issue of human invasion. As expected, the film’s release was preceded by a court case and the first screening was disrupted by violent protests. Such vandalism was also seen during the release of Zubeida. Perhaps, we are still not ready for bio-pics or we are not ready for truth.
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