WHILE WE WATCHED
★★★★
OUT 14 JULY / CERT 15 / 95 MINS
DIRECTOR Vinay Shukla
PARTICIPANTS Ravish Kumar, Sushil Bahuguna, Deepak Chaubey
Ravish Kumar is an anomaly in India’s TV-news landscape. Where all the successful, well-funded channels trumpet the brilliance of life in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kumar, on a minor network, reports from a different world, where unemployment is sky-high, people lack basics like clean water, and religious persecution is rife. For questioning the official government line, Kumar is labelled “anti-nationalist” and subjected to repeated threats. Vinay Shukla’s fascinating documentary follows him as he ploughs on with delivering truth, even as his ratings tumble and the country votes for Modi in ever larger numbers. It’s a gripping, moving, sometimes frustrating portrait of a man consumed by a need to speak up, even as he wonders if anybody’s actually listening.