Anyone with a different voice faces problems: Filmmaker Onir

Kolkata: Onir has been keeping very busy these days shooting his documentary on Down’s Syndrome titled “Moving bodies movies boundaries”. On his way back from a shoot in Kolhapur for this documentary, he came to know about the screening problems of an independent film in Kolkata. As a director who knows the struggle of independent film-makers, Onir was quick to speak out.
Said Onir, “Nandan always symbolised to me a place where I saw amazing world cinema during my college days in Kolkata.It’s sad that institutions that support and encourage art are becoming bastions of morality.” According to him, once a film is certified, no one has the right to stop the screening. “It’s a joke apart. Besides, the certification process is itself flawed,” he said.
He rued the fact that Indie cinema has very little space in this country. “We are the largest film production country in the world and the government or the industry should support cinema as a form of art,” he said.
But the screening problem, he said, should not be seen just in the context of “Cosmic Sex” but on a more generic level. “Anyone who has a different voice faces problems. Independent film-makers face it all the time,” he said.
Meanwhile, work of shooting the documentary film has been taking him across India these days. This documentary will feature eight people. Four of them are from Australia. The rest is from India. “I am shooting four different people who live life with dignity despite having Down’s syndrome. My friend’s daughter has Down’s syndrome. I overheard them talking about who to approach to make a documentary that would create awareness to fight for the rights of such people. There are tests that can be done to identify is a child is likely to have Down’s syndrome after birth. But Down’s syndrome isn’t a disease. Giving someone this option to know so that the child can be aborted is akin to letting someone know about a girl child and then getting her aborted too,” he explained.
In his documentary, Onir is trying to convey how kindness and support from society can help people with this syndrome.. “They can contribute to society too and live life with dignity. I am focussing on such stories of triumph,” he said.
One such story is of librarian Prathamesh Date. “He is 26 and has been working as a librarian. I’m told that he is the world’s first librarian with Down’s syndrome. I have also shot with a nine-and-a-half-year old school girl in Delhi – Aarshia Singh. Another person I shot with is a nationally awarded salesperson. Her name is Devanshi Joshi and she works at Gram Bharat in Pune,” Onir described.
Soon, he will be off to Chennai to shoot with a Bharatnatyam dancer – Babli Ramachandran. The film is expected to premiere at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne on August 19.