Home Videos

The cast and crew of Jai Ho Democracy. (Source: Express Photo by Sumit Malhotra)

When a clueless little chicken strays across the LoC, it unwittingly ruffles all the wrong feathers. As the forces on both sides, India and Pakistan, exchange choicest of words over this “suspicious” incident, all hell breaks lose, courtesy an over-enthusiastic reporter. What follows is a classic chicken and egg chase with the centre in a quandary, the international bodies alarmed, the media in a “breaking news” frenzy and the public on tenterhooks. Jai Ho Democracy is a satirical commentary on this chaotic state of affairs. To release on April 24, it’s a film that comes from the prolific writer of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Ranjit Kapoor, who has co-directed it with Bikramjeet Singh Bhullar. It stars some of the best from the National School of Drama, including Om Puri, Seema Biswas, Adil Hussain, Satish Kaushik and Annu Kapoor. The star cast also includes Benjamin Gilani, Aamir Bashir and theatre actors Khushi Rajput and Emmanual Singh.

The film is inspired by a play that Ranjit wrote and staged in 1987. “Power corrupts. I got to witness it firsthand during the Rajiv Gandhi government and the Bofors scam. The Joint Parliamentary Committee set up to tackle this issue exposed the farce of the system then, and then came my play, Ek Sansadiya Committee Ki Uthak Baithak,” he says.

The ripple effect of this political satire made it a hit and Ranjit has tried to reprise the same effect in Jai Ho Democracy.

He has also slipped in a message of hope and peace, emphasising that he is not revisiting Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. “When one tries to repeat success, it is usually fatal,” says Ranjit, who waited more than a year to release the film. “Today, the industry has fewer filmmakers and more money makers,” he says. Hussain agrees. With his film Un-Freedom being banned in India, because “it will inspire unnatural passion”, Hussain feels this “bullying”, the cut in culture budget, and Censor Board’s “unnecessary snips” is driving actors, writers and directors into a mode of self-censorship. “This is dangerous because cinema and art help educate and culturally evolve an audience,” says Hussain.

While Hussain plays war hero Major Baruah in the film, Puri plays Pandeyji, a right-wing heavyweight who represents a politician in post-Independence India. For Puri, films like these, and Road to Sangam, should be shown to politicians and seen to understand the complexity of Hindu-Muslim relationships. Biswas, meanwhile, plays social activist Ashima Roy, who has made a career out of her “social activities”. “Haven’t we seen the Ashimas around us and laughed at them secretly? Well, now you can laugh at Ashima openly,” says Biswas.

Source:: Indian Express