Firaaq

(India, 2007, 101 mins)

35mm

PRODS: Harindra M. Singh, Shailendra M. Singh
SCR: Shuchi Kothari, Nandita Das
CAM: Ravi K. Chandran
ED: Sreekar Prasad
MUS: Rajat Dholakia, Piyush Kanojia
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Sanjay Suri, Nowaz

This dramatic, deeply engaged fiction feature by actress-turned- director Nandita Das depicts the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots in India. Focusing on four linked Hindi and Muslim families, Firaaq is a furiously compassionate look at communal violence locates sparks of hope amidst its spiritual and physical victims. From the film's opening scene, in which a dump-truck deposits bodies into a mass grave, Das' film does not shy away from the truth. But the majority of the narrative is reserved for smaller acts of violence. The betrayals that take place between husband and wife, friend and lover, or within one's own sense of right and wrong carry an equally profound weight.

Whether it's a Muslim cleric who cannot admit to the atrocities being perpetrated in his neighbourhood or an obedient Hindi wife, who burns herself with hot oil in order to offset the pain of her conscience--Das handles a multiplicity of different, and often difficult, stories with bracing compassion and honesty.

As each character comes to terms with their complicity and their guilt, the film offers a gentle rejoinder to barbarity with acts of great personal courage. The film's final scene, however, speaks volumes about the lasting repercussions of loss, grief and the terrible cost of inaction. (Allegations of police complicity in the attacks maintain that the massacre was organized with the participation of the local police and government officials.) Acts of violence, both big and small, have enduring legacies that can neither be diminished nor forgotten.

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