New Delhi: Films are a mirror to society, but Bollywood filmmakers seem to shy away from portraying tragedies like the partition of India, the 1993 Mumbai blasts or the 2002 Gujarat riots, largely because they are not easy to do.
This week, however, there is a refreshing change. Theatre personality Shrirang's directorial debut Dil Se Pooch... Kidhar Jaana Hai takes a closer look at the lives of those who survived the Mumbai blasts.
"We talk sympathetically about the 9/11 tragedy and other similar incidents, but do we try to know what happened to the people who survived. More than physical, such violence has a psychological effect. It can finish people," says Vani Tripathi, who plays a Muslim girl orphaned during the Mumbai riots in the film.
"I play a girl who loses her entire family. She has no one to turn to and in the course of time becomes a prostitute. And when she meets her friend, who has become a cop, after 10 years and wants to settle down with him the socio-political system plays havoc in their lives," Vani adds.
The film neither boasts of a dazzling star cast nor a big banner, but it certainly has something profound to say through its narrative.
Making such films is not an easy job. "My producer had a tough time finding a distributor," says Vani.
In the last 13 years, this is probably the third film on the Mumbai blasts - the first being Mani Ratnam's Bombay followed by Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday, which was banned in India.
So, are Indian filmmakers disinclined to venture into such areas?
"Making films on victims of violence and catastrophe is not an easy job," says veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal.
"Take partition for instance - it was not possible to make a film until Garam Hawa happened. Not because there was any bar on it or censorship. There are many complex reasons. These subjects have to be dealt with a certain distance. Without the distance, a filmmaker is unable get a grip on the subject in a reasonable manner," says Benegal.
"That's why it was easier for somebody like Mani Ratnam to make a film about the events of the 1993 Mumbai blasts," adds Benegal.
Ratnam's Bombay, starring Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swamy, dealt with the communal violence that erupted after the Mumbai blasts.
Though special Judge P D Kode has finished giving the verdicts on the 1993 bombings that killed 257 people and injured 713, but the punishment won't wipe out the scars, which are engraved on the hearts and minds of families who lost their near and dear ones.
Vani, herself a witness to the riots, says it is not easy to talk to people who are in obvious anguish.
"I am a Delhi girl and even after so many years I can't shut the memories of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. I am a social worker and I was given a file of 50 women to meet. When I went to meet them, half didn't speak, a few tried to talk but were so emotional that their words were lost in sobs. Even after years, people find it difficult to talk."
"People sit in their drawing rooms and talk about such people without knowing what's happening in their lives," says Vani.
Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday, based on a book by S Hussein Zaidi, talks about the investigation in the riots, how police solved the case and the conspiracy behind the blasts.
The film has been showcased at quite a few international film festivals like Locarno, Bhutan, New York and earned critical acclaim but ironically it has been banned in India.
There have been a few other films like Dharmaputra, Garam Hawa, Mammo and Tamas dealing with the subcontinent's partition, but hardly any good, telling films on tragedies like the Mumbai blasts or Gujarat riots.
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