‘Ours is the last generation to believe life's not only about loving your parents': Sudhir Mishra on rebellion being at the heart of his films

Indian Express

2 days ago

The filmmaker Sudhir Mishra talks about using the Emergency as a backdrop in his film Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and his new series, Summer of 76, to pay a heartfelt tribute to youth, curiosity and dissent.
Here's the except from his interview:
Your film 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi' (2005) had the Emergency as a backdrop as does your upcoming eight-part series 'Summer of '76'. How do you look back at the events of those days?
Fifty years on, it's complicated when you look at it. You have to see that those who fought against it, what happened to them, were they very different from those they opposed? Of course, the imposition of the Emergency was, for want of a better word, a not-so-great chapter in Indian history. It gave permission to a lot of petty tyrants. There was a government and from the village-level up, there were tin-pot tyrants who ruled the roost. Anybody could arrest anyone, say he is a Naxal and shoot him. This is what caused the actual problem. What Mrs Gandhi and her people did not understand was that it was a 'conference of the upset' movement against the Emergency, against them. There was a whole disappointed generation. My series is about this moment. There was a generation that did not agree with the idea of India that was handed to them by their parents who had fought for freedom. They felt a sense of betrayal. Problem is those who rebelled didn't realise that those who took power after that were actually worse than those they were opposing.
What is the 'Summer of '76' about?
It draws from the autobiography of my maternal grandfather, DP Mishra, who had been in the Congress and had two stints as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. He was one of the few people who fought or manipulated — call it what you want — for Mrs Gandhi to be the prime minister. But he was a follower of Sardar Patel and was opposed to Nehru. He was the only one to resign from the Congress over Nehru but was brought back as chief minister, and then campaigned for Indira Gandhi. He was sort of a Centrist. However, a Left-wing fantasy had started that thought that through Mrs Gandhi, they could bring in a revolution. They became very disappointed during her imposition of the Emergency because of Sanjay Gandhi. He had started a coterie, which was non-democratic, entitled and had a 'Babalog view' of the world, which alienated the youth in non-metro India from the English-speaking upper class. My grandfather saw that there was a kind of undeclared emergency within the Congress and so before they could kick him out, he walked away. He had joined the Congress as a 20-year-old and was an understudy to Motilal Nehru, so he said he couldn't work under the great-grandson.
As with your film Hazaaron…, will youth be at the centre of Summer of 76 too?
Yes, but it's much wider. I follow people all over the country. 'Hazaaron…' is about these college students, 'Summer of '76' is about those who got involved in the JP movement. It's also about Ramesh Dixit, one of the students arrested in JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University), and on Pushpesh Pant's book, 'Portrait of a Student Activist'. So, factual parts of it come from there, then there are a lot of stories, fiction and imagination. The series is about what happens to the passionate, who think they are not living in the best of all possible worlds and want to change it. It's an exciting journey of seven young people and the problems they will face. The Emergency is a metaphor. This is a story of any time. It's a tribute to youth, to curiosity, to rebellion, to holding each other's hands, to taking risks.
Rebellion is often at the heart of your films.
At the time of the Emergency, I was very young but I know how my grandfather felt about it. He died in 1988 and I was a filmmaker by then. I'm not a faithful family boy, I have a point of view and everything's filtered through my eyes. I'm a scientist's son, a mathematician's son. So when I see a hypothesis, I need to evaluate if it's true or not. And if it's not, then I look at it straight in the face.
We are, perhaps, the last generation that believes life is not only about loving your parents or obeying your parents. There were many rebellions happening at that time. Women were breaking free, landless peasants were attempting to break free, many lower castes were coming to the fore, claiming their place in India, the Dalit movement was gaining strength. This is what the Congress didn't see. Unfortunately, sometimes it ended up being led by the wrong people but that desire to break free was genuine.
Your films have captured the angst and idealism of a generation. Do you think people are less idealistic now?
I don't blame the youth because this is the world we gave them. The poor are bereft of one kind of nutrition; the upper class or the so-called middle class are bereft of another. The whole education system is geared to mugging up information and vomiting it out. It is not geared to create a mind which can analyse, understand and take things forward. Curiosity is not encouraged. So you have a nation of educated illiterates. You have prepared a world where anything can be said and the majority will believe it, which is why most of them will be replaced so easily by AI. There is extreme self-centeredness and a disrespect of any kind of idealism. It's not only that they do not want to be idealists but they disrespect them. And then there is a pseudo-Left, a cultural Left, which I think is the fig leaf of the Right. So there is actually no real opposition and everybody is the same.
The censorship that started then, do you see its shadow in current times?
Yes, a nation starts getting used to self-censoring. Anyway, it's not so difficult in our country because we always say, 'badon ke saamne aise nahi bolna chahiye' (you shouldn't speak like that before elders). We have a culture of censorship. Be polite, don't say this in front of your grandfather. If you have censorship in your head, then you cannot be scientific, right?
Do you think there are still ways of saying what you want to say?
Well, in Iran, filmmakers say what they want to say and make films. So, you can. If you have a negative mindset and say I cannot express myself, then what is the message you send to other people? You become a bore. You should keep expressing yourself in a rational, non-sensationalist way but you should be prepared for repercussions that may happen.