DHARM
Set on the backdrop of communal violence and religious fanaticism, ‘Dharm’ directed by the debutante women director Bhavna Talwar is in one word- ‘sudorific’. It’s a film which hits you and keeps hitting you for days. It’s a film which will go down in the collection of your film as one of the most cherished movies ever made in the history of Indian filmmaking.
The film is a biography of a fictitious man, Pundit Chaturvedi, the epitome of hollow believes of any religion, in this case Hinduism. His family consisting of his wife and his girl follow the religion in tandem with the pundit.
One day as fate would have its way, pundit’s daughter brings a child home, saying that his mother would come and take him back, Days pass the mother of the child doesn’t come. On Pundit’s wife [Supriya Pathak] persistence he agrees to let the child, stay with them. Three years pass the boy grows and is called Kartikey. Pundit develops a special bonding with the boy. Karthikey is being brought up within the swathes of hindu religion- praying in the morning with his father, following all the rituals, sitting with other students in the study hours,
But one day the mother of the child comes to take him back. The twist being that the mother belongs to the religion whose fanatics don’t have tolerance for Hinduism and vice versa.
Pundit Chaturvedi is shocked, His religion, his beliefs have been threatened, challenged, masqueraded, buffeted. He gets into heavy penance…for days, cleansing his house and his own self.
But despite all the rituals he is unable to cleanse his mind and thoughts from the love his has for the child . While doing rituals, he keeps hearing his voice… sweetly calling him father!!
And on the judgement day another communal violence had buffeted the small town.
Kartikey’s mother requests the pundit’s family to accept the child back or he would be killed by the hindu mob. Unable to curb his love for the child, pundit goes to look for him in a muslim ghetto and finally saves his life and gets him back to his own house.
The film beautifully conveys this very important message in the simplest and yet provocative and powerful way. Shot on hi definition format, the camera beautifully captures the ghats of Varanasi making it picturesque and extremely appealing
Dharm is a must watch for all the politicians and religious dogmatists and ideologists.
It’s Cinema Verite at its best!
