Documentaries

Portraits of Belonging: Sagira Begum

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An Old Delhi neighbourhood full of highly skilled craftspeople struggles to survive, to keep some fragment of its poetry in a city whose priorities are far more prosaic.

Sabad Nirantar

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If there was ever a need to remind ourselves of the need for the profound in our everyday life, and its enduring place among those we refer to as ‘common’ folk, then this film nudges us to that doorstep.

Rabba Hun Kee Kariye

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Could it be that 62 years on, the scars of the Partition violence have still not healed because there is so little voluntary admission of guilt, so much glorified victimhood? Here’s a narrative finally that trains its gaze at the perpetrators.

Out of Thin Air

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This film offers many of the old-fashioned pleasures of the documentary: it takes us to an unfamiliar place and tells us an unknown story. In this case it’s also an unexpected story.

Prisoners of Conscience

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It could have been a period piece about political prisoners and state repression during the Emergency. But 30 years after it was made, the film still rings with contemporary relevance.

Kitte Mil Ve Mahi

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This is invisible Punjab, bypassing the airbrushed mythology of its prosperity and the always-happy-always-cheerful Punjabi. This is a key to the understanding of how the Sufi way has come to rest with the state’s impoverished Dalits.