A film for new age Indians

The title of the film is as intriguing and thought to provoke as the subject, with its release overcoming several roadblocks and ironically reflecting the very struggle that it sets out to portray.

“‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ traces the hurdles faced by the enlightened (compared to Buddha who symbolises it) wading through a maze (traffic) of corruption and opportunism, defunct politics and outdated ideologies that are part of the rotten system that uses individuals as pawns in the pursuit of power,” states writer-director Vivek Agnihotri when asked about the unusual title of the film.

Unfazed by online threats and allegations that he is a sympathiser of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Agnihotri went on to make a bold film on campus politics that exposes the nexus between naxalites, NGO’s, academia and the intelligentsia of India, and the efforts in certain universities to brainwash students into becoming what he calls “intellectual terrorists”.

The film premiered at the 2014 Mumbai International Film Festival and it won the best actor award for actress Pallavi Joshi and Vivek bagged the best director award in different festivals and secured nominations and outstanding reviews at more than a dozen film festivals outside the country before it mired in controversy back home.

Based on true life incidents drawn from the director’s life, the film was screened at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) recently on the request of students after being denied permission for months following the politically volatile atmosphere on campus.

Reflecting the situation in many disturbed campuses across the country, the film seen by four thousand students at the JNU campus received a standing ovation with the director’s emotional speech creating a stir on social media. It has since been shown in more than dozen universities across India.

“Just like the Taliban that has been brainwashing young minds into believing that that they are ushering in revolutionary changes, many unemployed naxals and sympathisers of the movement have moved from the jungles into concrete jungles and along with certain university professors who are using funds and infrastructure to brainwash students into becoming intellectual terrorists jeopardising their future,” says Vivek Agnihotri,

who minces no words in condemning crony socialists and communists who he think are clinging on to theories that have lost relevance in today’s world. “My film is for new age Indians, who want remove the corrupt middlemen who are ruining the country. It is for everyone who loves the nation,” he adds.

Vivek Agnihotri hails from Bhopal and is familiar with campus happenings as he is the son of a university vice-chancellor and was active in student politics at IIMC, Delhi. After completing his masters at Harvard, he went on to make a career in advertising and his brief teaching stint at ISB, Hyderabad, finally culminated in his making a movie with a strong message.

“As a student, I was exposed to the machinations of political parties who used to supply weed and alcohol to students on campus and instigate them to burn buses and damage public property. They create the feeling that students are part of a great revolution while using them to meet their own political ends,” says Agnihotri.

The film shot in the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad is the first ever feature film made on the premises of a business school. According to him the campus unrest over Rohith Vemula or Kanhaiya Kumar has been orchestrated by political parties who have shown great interest in fanning dissent and visiting campuses to keep issues alive and that could be dealt without outside interference.

The film is deliberately set in the backdrop of a business school, the movie seeks to show that radical solutions are expected from an economically powerful, inspirational India says Agnihotri. He is baffled by mindless comedies being labelled as mainstream cinema but realistic themes going by the tag “parallel or “art films”.

Citing films made by Raj Kapoor and Shyam Benegal as those that had socio-political themes with great acceptability, he feels films can be a powerful medium of change. Happy that his film has emerged as a movement, Vivek Agnihotri says it is not anti-establishment. “It is rather anti to those who are anti-establishment,” he laughs.

While the official release of the film is May 13, students of Osmania University, had a special request screening for which the director was in Hyderabad. His next project is a film on the events that unfolded in our country from the emergency till the Bofors scandal and will again be a scathing attack on the system that a majority seem to meekly accept.

Vivek Agnihotri says his films are an attempt to initiate a dialogue and throw up solutions to problems that plague a vibrant country like India. It is his endeavour to awaken a nation celebrating mediocrity to usher in a new order of meritocracy. A thought that is sure to resonate in many a patriotic heart.

By:Aruna Ravikumar