Lalit Vachani

A behind-the-scenes look at how a people’s movement against divisive politics takes on an authoritarian party in power in the Indian Election-2024. Wake-up Karnataka unites with citizens’ groups across India, dramatically shifting conversation from ‘mandir’ (temple) to ‘mudda’ (people’s problems), making this a closely fought election.

Set at CREST (the Centre for Research and Education for Social Transformation) in Kozhikode, the film documents the ‘soft skills’ training of Dalit and Adivasi post-graduate students in a nurturing campus environment as preparation for their employment in the new Indian economy. But how politicised or politically aware is the 'recast self'? Matters come to a climax when the CREST students research and select the theme of the semester ending play. Will they choose to do a play that exposes caste discrimination around Rohit Vemula's suicide? Or will they select one that expresses their fears about ‘Bengali’ migration to Kerala?

Set at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, India, this is a film about the indoctrination of young Hindu boys by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS), India's foremost Hindu fundamentalist organization. Juxtaposing the activities of two different RSS 'shakhas' or branches, the film documents the stories and the games, the rituals and the play that socialize the young RSS recruit.

The Battle Royale tracks Mahua Moitra’s re-election campaign in the high profile constituency of Krishnanagar as she fights for her political survival and redemption. Pitted against Moitra are the BJP’s Amrita Roy – the ‘Rajmata’ of Krishnanagar, and the CPI(M)/INC candidate, S.M. Sadi. The Battle Royale is part of Election Diaries 2024, a series of 9 documentaries produced by CeMIS (Centre for Modern Indian Studies) that reflect the anxieties, the hopes and the resilience of Indian democracy over the 2024 elections.

The sequel to 'The Boy in the Branch', the film revisits the RSS, a Hindu right-wing organization in India after a gap of eight years.

Prisoner No. 626710 is Present chronicles the arrest and prolonged incarceration of activist Umar Khalid, accused of orchestrating the 2020 New Delhi riots. Through archival footage and personal accounts, Lalit Vachani explores Khalid's activism, the impact of his imprisonment on his partner Banojyotsna Lahiri, and the broader crackdown on dissent under the Modi government. The film situates Khalid’s story within the larger political repression of civil rights movements and Muslim voices in India.

In 1930, a group of Indians led by a frail, elderly man marched a distance of 241 miles. They marched for salt. Mahatma Gandhi was able to craft an anti-colonial, nationalist movement around the most basic issue of livelihood: the right of Indians to make and consume their own salt. 77 years later, the Wide Eye Film team followed the trail of the famous Dandi salt march, stopping at the same villages and towns, in search of Gandhi's legacy. Set against the backdrop of Gandhi's original journey, this is a road movie about issues of livelihood in modern, globalizing India. It is a documentary about 'the salt stories' of our times.

What kind of democracy does India have today? Using Gandhi’s famous Dandi salt march through Gujarat as a starting point, this road-movie style documentary looks at contemporary India, the world’s biggest democracy, and explores the significance of the Gandhian legacy of peace and non-violence for democratic movements in the twenty first century.

Tales from Napa is the remarkable story of a little village that resisted the forces of Hindu fundamentalism during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, India. Set in the village of Napa, the film investigates the role played by local Hindus and Muslims and their social institutions in maintaining the peace, in the context of a history of economic interdependence, communal harmony and syncretism.

Revolving around three case studies of hate crime in North India, the film follows human rights lawyer Akram Akhtar Choudhary as he provides legal help to his clients – victims of mob lynchings, vigilante violence and police encounter killings. The film is a frightening reminder of the precarity of Muslim lives in Hindu nationalist India.

What does it mean to perform socialist ‘agit-prop’ theatre in India in a globalized era of increasing intolerance and inequality? Natak Jari Hai is a documentary about JANAM (The People’s Theatre Front), the little theatre group that never stopped performing in the face of dramatic political transformation and personal tragedy. The film explores the motivations and ideals of the JANAM actors and their vision of resistance and change as they perform their ‘People’s Theatre’ in diverse parts of India. It brings to life the world of socialist theatre through the words of JANAM’s members, and through a reflective portrayal of the group’s greatest tragedy - the assassination of its convenor Safdar Hashmi in 1989.