In a highly personal film, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan tells the story of his parents' (and uncles') involvement in the Indian independence movement against the backdrop of contemporary Indian politics.

1:00 PM
Royce Hall, Rm 306

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, a Sanskrit phrase meaning “the world is family,” is a universalist idea that competes with exclusivist Hindu notions of caste. Anand grew up in a milieu that questioned the latter. The family’s elders had fought for India’s Independence but rarely spoke about it. 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity', words enshrined in the Constitution, became subconsciously internalized.

As Anand’s parents aged, he began to film with whatever equipment was at hand. Soon birthdays and family gatherings gave way to oral history. Revisiting home movie footage a decade after his parents had passed was a revelation. Today as self-confessed Hindu supremacists whose ideology once inspired the murder of Mahatma Gandhi rewrite India's history, memories of the past have become more precious than mere personal nostalgia.

Anand Patwardhan has been making documentary films for over five decades, pursuing issues at the crux of social and political life in India. Many of his films were at one time or another banned by state television channels and became the subject of censorship rulings that Anand successfully challenged in court.

Active in movements for communal harmony and against unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism, Anand describes himself as “a non-serious human being forced by circumstances to make serious films.”