Reliving the scars left behind by Godhra riots

Firaaq
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Raghuvir Yadav, Shahana Goswami, Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra 
Director: Nandita Das
Rating: ***

Recent films like Slumdog Millionaire, Delhi 6 and Firaaq share one characteristic: they hold up a mirror to society. Set over a 24-hour period a month after the Godhra incident in Gujarat in 2002, Firaaq opens with scenes of mass burials reminiscent of Holocaust movies. The establishing of context, time and events is one of the strengths of the narrative and the screenplay (Das and Shuchi Kothari).

Based on news reports and research, real life stories are woven into five fictional ones. The lives of ordinary characters across communities and social strata represents a range of emotions and situations faced by victims and perpetrators of communal unrest.

We are accustomed to seeing the impact of riots at the external level - places that cameras and reporters have access to — but Firaaq, meaning both separation and quest, examines the repercussions of this violence and hatred behind closed doors. One of the challenges of such a script is to interlace disparate stories and, mostly, Sreekar Prasad’s editing seamlessly transitions between the tracks.

The background music (Rajat Dholakia and Piyush Kanojia) accentuates the mood and Ravi K Chandran’s camerawork creates unique environments for each unconnected episode.

While the individual stories are perhaps representative, they are not consistent in their build up, back stories and in the emotional punch delivered. Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Naseeruddin Shah, Raghuvir Yadav, Nowaz, Tisca Chopra and Sanjay Suri pitch in with solid performances. The most haunting track is of the little orphaned boy Mohsin (Mohd. Samad) who learns some tough lessons in survival and forsakes his childhood before time.

Watch this for its intention, for being intense but not melodramatic and for Nandita Das’s assured and determined directorial debut in a film that unapologetically depicts the hatred, fear and intolerance endemic in society today.