Patwardhan spoke about the need for something beyond resistance
Hyderabad: Last year in Hyderabad, the screening of ‘Ram Ke Naam’ was stopped. Thirty-five years after it was made, Anand Patwardhan’s documentary on the Babri Masjid movement remains too controversial for some. "These attacks are illegal," he said at Lamakaan on Saturday, where his latest film ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ was screened. "I have a censor certificate, but instead of stopping those disrupting the screening, the police arrest students and organisers."
This is the climate in which ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ exists. A film that began as a personal archive, spanning over 25 years, now holds a mirror to history. “It was supposed to be a home movie,” Patwardhan said. “I was looking at it during the Covid pandemic and thought it might be useful to show it to others.”
The documentary moves through time as it traces his family's memories from the years of Independence and Partition to the present day.
The personal and the political are interconnected through the film. His family’s interactions with Mahatma Gandhi, the quirks of his parents, their journey back to Hyderabad’s roots in Pakistan — these moments sit alongside the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The past and present are placed side by side. One movement fought for India’s freedom. The other, he suggests, fights to protect what remains of it.
The film also introduces forgotten names from the Independence movement and a particularly striking figure is that of Allah Baksh. A leader who mobilised people against Partition, assassinated, and erased from public memory. “People have short-term memory of history,” Patwardhan said. "This is an era of ‘created history’ on WhatsApp." Those who fought for India's freedom have been pushed into the margins, while others rewrite their roles.
Personal footage runs throughout the film. Moments from home, everyday life, the fragments of a family's past. “A personal diary of moving images,” someone remarked. However, the history never stays in the background. The film ends with the preamble to the Constitution and the contrast is clear — the India that was and the India that is.
Patwardhan spoke about the need for something beyond resistance. A cultural shift. “A lonely battle fought with arms won’t help,” he said. “There needs to be an imaginary strength of concept, a revolution of ideas, to win people over.”
The name Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam came to him in the edit. “It was the only title possible,” he said. A phrase that means “the world is one family”. At its core, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is about family as he captures his parents and traces both sides of his lineage. Their histories, their ideals, and eventually, their deaths. In documenting them, Patwardhan captures what history often neglects. The personal stories behind political shifts. So, a home movie extends beyond home. A family's past that speaks to a nation's present.
And yet, in the India of today, his films still face the same resistance. The screening of ‘Ram Ke Naam’ was halted just last year with a court hearing still pending.
