“Yeh deeware akhbaro se zyada sach bolti hain.” [add English translation]
Directed by Roy and Sethi, this short ideation, Lest we Forget is a silent testimony to all those lives that were destroyed during the pandemic.
Starring “the forgotten ones that make India”, this short film is an ode to our not-so-privileged countrymen who were trampled upon time and again at the hands of our leaders and the high and mighty. Hashtagged as #atmanirbhar, this film is also a satire on the idea of self-dependence which has become a buzzword and catch-all term the government uses to describe its role in shaping the social reality of the country. In streaming the failures of the government in a row along with a revealing soundtrack, the film makes an attempt to show the gap in what was promised and what really happened. In other words, it is an insight or a glimpse into the harsh socio-political reality of our country, for which each and every one of us should take collective responsibility.
A little context to the film...
The Janta curfew (lockdown) was first called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March, 2020 when the nation fell prey to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the ruling party failed to provide safety to the citizens of the country despite promising the same. Migrant workers from states like Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and other areas, on being laid off overnight by their employers and ousted from their accommodations in bigger cities, were forced to walk back thousands of kilometres to their homes. No help was extended from the government which had left them in the throes by calling a lockdown on a day’s notice.
Further, the government also made people engage in inane activities like banging ‘thaalis’ from their rooftops (apparently as a token of admiration for healthcare professionals), duped the nation by creating a fund that remains beset by lack of transparency, all the while having failed miserably in diplomacy with China in its northern borders. Instead, it has resorted to lip-service by merely banning 118 Chinese apps in India.
To top it all, the government was so negligent in assuring safety for the migrant workers returning to their home states, that a heart-breaking incident took place when a train in western India ran over 16 of them while they were sleeping on tracks. It has been one long battle between the state and its citizens, which continues to be fought silently in more ways than can be counted.
This film is an attempt through an audio-visual medium, to understand the collective voice of people dejected by the gaping loopholes in governance in the country in the last few months.
You can check out the video here.
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