Depicting the depths of inhumanity

Review: Sydney Knight

CINEMA: Thanks to the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo that the film viewing fraternity in the city were able to see Amu.

This film is by Shonali Bose (writer/director) who was a student in Delhi during the post-Indira Gandhi assassination anti-Sikh riots. Bose worked in the camps that emerged for relief and rehabilitation. In the camps, she wrote the stories of those survivors.

Bose in the film tells us the story of Amu, whose father and brother were victims of the massacre. Her mother commits suicide. Amu was thus adopted by her mother's 'new found' friend in the camp. Her mother in a note left for her 'new' mother does not want Amu to know any of the facts.

In the film, Amu is known as Kaju, the name given by the one who chose to adopt her. In and through the story we see her discovering her roots in India, now on a holiday from the US.

The story shows the role played by the police and politicians. Thus depicting that the massacre was organised and not spontaneous.

After 20 odd years the medium of the film is seeking justice. The need to expose the perpetrators of this crime against humanity in the name of Hinduism.

To a Sri Lankan audience, it was the repeat of July 1983 in its entirety and totality. In an age when the audio-visual is a powerful medium, we felt for the Sikhs. Thus for all victims in all ages in all places.

This Indian film has won the Triple Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was selected for the 2006 Berlin Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, 2005. It is a film that all of us in Mother Lanka must see to feel the depth of inhumanity in massacring innocents in the name of anything.

Well done, Shonali Bose.

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