The Hindu : National : `Over-dramatisation' in film on JP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 24, 2004

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National

`Over-dramatisation' in film on JP

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI, OCT. 23. Political compulsions may have stalled the screening of Prakash Jha's film on the socialist leader, Jayprakash Narayan, but a panel of three journalists — all critics of the Emergency — has also found fault with the celluloid venture commissioned by the National Democratic Alliance Government.

Ajit Bhattacharjea, who authored Jayprakash Narayan's political biography in 1975, has questioned the "torture" sequence shown in Mr. Jha's film, `Loknayak.' He stated as much in a letter to Doordarshan, after watching it as part of the three-member panel set up to review it. The other two members were Prabhash Joshi and B.G. Verghese, who were also members of the Jayprakash Narayan Birth Centenary Celebration Committee set up by the NDA Government.

Mr. Bhattacharjea said: "One scene that recalls a Bollywood thriller is of the repeated and bloody beatings JP is shown to receive in [the] Lahore fort jail after his re-arrest. This is fiction. The text of JP's letter to [the] Home Secretary of the Punjab Government, written from jail, does not go beyond complaining of extended interrogation and denial of sleep."

`Authenticity affected'

Appreciating Mr. Jha's effort, Mr. Bhattacharjea said that "occasionally, restraint is abandoned" and Mr. Verghese said he favoured editing some "long lingering scenes" to make the film more viewer-friendly.

According to Mr. Bhattacharjea: "Some of the major events are exaggerated and over-dramatised, injuring the authenticity of the entire film. The depiction of the Diwali celebrations in Hazaribagh jail with the participation of the jailor and the prolonged escape is overdone."

Both the journalists noted that most of the politicians quoted in the film belonged either to the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. However, Mr. Bhattacharjea only makes an oblique reference to this in his letter; stating that, "Interviews with political leaders and others add nothing to our understanding of JP. Only the recollections of those in direct contact with him during the period portrayed like Acharya Ramamurti and his attendants fit the context. Others should be deleted."

`Imbalanced'

Mr. Verghese made a similar point at a follow-up meeting with Doordarshan officials and the producer. "Most of the people speaking about JP in the film are either RSS or BJP persons. Nothing they had to say was wrong but it gives a sense of the narrative being appropriated by a single set of spokespersons. Since the voice of eulogy comes from one particular quarter, it makes the film look imbalanced," Mr. Verghese told The Hindu .

The need to curtail the Diwali celebrations and the Hazaribagh jail escape and balance the film with quotations from all political shades finds mention in Doordarshan's letter to Mr. Jha.

However, neither of the journalists suggested any of the deletions in the audio sought by Doordarshan — including references such as "Tanashahi ka shikar hua" (prey to dictatorship), the "Indira Hatao" (remove Indira) slogan, "Sanjay Gandhi had a motive," and "Indiraji ne JP ke saath jo zyadati ki" (the injustice done to JP by Indira Gandhi).

Mr. Verghese said the panel was concerned with making the film viewable; a point borne out by Mr. Bhattacharjea's letter in which he said `Loknayak' would be "more authentic and meaningful if the director condenses it into two 25-minute segments televised on successive days" — virtually suggesting that it be cut by half.

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