Women in Dark Times
Vibha Bakshi’s National award-winning Son Rise shows that documentaries can be instruments of social transformation
In her first Indian documentary, Daughters of Mother India, Vibha Bakshi looked at the public agitation that followed Nirbhaya’s gang-rape and the change in laws it effected. In her latest, Son Rise, the documentary filmmaker has focused on Haryana’s sex ratio, skewed as a result of illegal sex determination tests and subsequent female foeticide. The lack of a female voice in the state’s khaps only confirms Haryana’s deep-rooted patriarchy. Both films have won the National Award for best non-feature films, with Son Rise also winning the Hemanti Sarkar the prize for best editing.
“Gender violence, gender inequality and global warming are very compelling issues, but unfortunately they are not easy to watch,” says Bakshi, an erstwhile business reporter and anchor. “While I do show you the dark side, I leave you with hope. These are fights we can’t afford to lose.” Bakshi made the best of her 12-year stint in the US, working on Al Gore’s global warming film, Too Hot NOT to Handle, and Terror At Home, part of the US government’s campaign to stop violence against women.
Bakshi has a nifty approach to documentary-making. She never goes in with a script or even research; instead, she lets her travels and interaction with the locals inform her narrative. From November 2016 to June 2018, Bakshi and her small crew made 11 trips to Haryana, covering 45 villages and returned with stark observations. “You go from village to village and you find there are no girls,” says Bakshi, who had to overcome her own bias and fear of travelling in the state. “We discovered that there are unmarried men and bride trafficking,” she says. Brief footage of an Assamese woman talking about adapting to life in Haryana becomes all the more hard-hitting in the wake of Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s remark that women can now be brought from Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.
In the film, we meet Kusam, a gang-rape survivor fighting a hard battle for justice along with her supportive husband, Jitender Chattar, who has depleted his savings. With a crowdfunding campaign already underway to help Chattar with legal fees, it’s clear that the film has made an impact. Recently, Kusam, now a mother of two, has even started studying law. Documentaries, Son Rise proves, don’t just throw light on the ills of society. They have the capacity to change it too. ■