Nandita Das’ directorial debut Firaaq, released this week in 2008, was a spellbinding spin on communal violence. She is naturally proud of the daring hard-hitting film. “Today in the spate of releases, I really wish that Firaaq would be re-released. That would be really amazing even though it’s available for free on YouTube and it’s a good copy and many have watched it over the years. I’ve always believed that, you know, art that is worth any mettle will survive and time is the biggest judge of any art and cinema is no different. But yeah, but just being able to watch a film in a theater, you know, it’s such a collective and such an immersive experience. I hope someday it will get re-released because at the time not many could watch it in the theater and also, you know, at that time there was no social media. So like spreading the word was so much more difficult and I think many would be interested in watching it today if it was re-released.”
Firaaq will always remain very special to Nandita. “It was my first film, the subject is very close to my heart. It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. You know as a first film to have five different stories with five sets of actors and five sets of locations was not easy. I didn’t realize what I was going to get into but I was driven by the desire, the passion, the intent of telling that story. Violence deeply disturbs me, physical, psychological and emotional and I feel we can create empathy when we understand why people feel fear or are vulnerable. I think one of the main things that cinema can do is to invoke empathy for a more compassionate world. That’s what my hope: that one is able to add a drop to that ocean.”
The shooting of this fearless film was a challenge. “The shooting was definitely quite challenging but also many memories associated with it. I’m so grateful that so many actors had faith in me and agreed to be part of it without knowing whether I would be able to direct or not. A stellar crew as well. So yeah, I’m very grateful for senior and such eminent actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Raghubir Yadav and some younger actors at the time like Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra and new actors at the time Shahana Goswami and Nawazuddin. It was some of his earliest works. Amrita Subhash…. I mean, I was so fortunate to have worked with so many amazing actors and being an actor myself, it was such a delight to be able to work with actors of that calibre.”
