Kol catches sister’s docu ode to slain journalist Gauri Lankesh
Times of India | 16 July 2024
Kolkata: Was it the extinguishing of optimism that Gauri Lankesh’s assailants aspired to achieve when they brutally murdered the journalist outside her residence in Bengaluru on Sept 5, 2017? The perpetrators had sprayed a minimum of seven rounds at her as she was unbolting the door of her house after returning from work. Seven years later, the city witnessed the screening of an internationally acclaimed documentary about her by her sibling, Kavitha Lankesh.
Kolkata is the second Indian city after Bengaluru to have watched the screening of ‘Gauri’. “I am happy with the investigation. The process of forming a special court is on its way. I am hoping for justice to be delivered soon,” Kavitha told TOI post the screening.
When ‘Gauri’ garnered the “Best Long Documentary Award” at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal the previous year, the citation characterized it as a “courageous and uncompromising assessment of the prevailing crisis in Indian politics”. “Gauri epitomizes a form of journalism that stood against the prevailing power, advocated secularism and constitutional values. There are numerous other journalists on the peripheries who sacrificed their lives for this cause. With this screening, we paid homage to all the journalists in India who possess this kind of conviction,” said Dwaipayan Banerjee, founding member of People’s Film Collective that organised Sunday’s screening at Sujata Sadan.
Kavitha, who was present at an online interaction with the viewers, was praised for presenting an interesting perspective in the documentary. At times, she came on camera recounting her own experiences, discussing among other aspects, what an exceptional cook Gauri was but refrained from engaging in that extensively since she didn’t desire to be confined to a “box of domesticity”. In a touching move, Kavitha also recounted how she discovered the tiffin in Gauri’s vehicle with food still remaining in it after she was assassinated.
“The footage used at the end of the documentary, where her teary-eyed mother is shown speaking about how she finds Gauri’s presence in all those who had gathered at the assembly, imbues her martyrdom with a profound new dimension and a deeply personal touch,” Banerjee remarked.