Jabbar Patel’s Ambedkar opens NFAI-Aashay I-Day film fest

August 16, 2016

15Aug_Dr Jabbar Patel 2 — Dr Jabbar Patel

“We see so much of Gandhi in Ambedkar’s film but so less of Ambedkar in Gandhi’s film? Why is that?” questioned noted filmmaker Dr Jabbar Patel at the opening of the Independence Day Film Festival organised jointly by the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) and Aashay Film Club. The festival was held from August 13 to 15 and showed a variety of biographical feature films and documentaries on various freedom fighters like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The first film to be screened at the festival was Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, directed by Dr Jabbar Patel, who also gave an introduction to the film by narrating various anecdotes that highlighted the struggle while getting the film made. “We had to shoot at Columbia University since it’s where Dr Ambedkar studied from 1913 to 1916. There was another film shot there earlier called ‘Rain Man’ featuring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. They had paid the university around five million dollars to be able shoot. The budget for my film was just two million dollars. I met the Dean and I told him about my constraints, but he said that this film was about a student from his university. He brought out the original certificate of Dr Ambedkar’s degree when he graduated and didn’t charge me anything,” recalls Patel.

The film went on to win three National Awards including Best Actor, Best Feature Film in English and Best Art Direction. Dr Ambedkar was portrayed by renowned Malayalam actor, Mammootty. The film was also dubbed in nine languages. It was written by political analyst and senior journalist, Arun Sadhu, the late historian and scholar, Y D Phadke and screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala.

Prakash Magdum, Director of NFAI, spoke about the kind of films chosen for the festival to mark 70 years of the Indian Independence. “We have put together a mix of films that give a biographical sketch of the freedom movement. This also includes some documentaries made by veteran filmmakers as well as rare footage that the archive has. It was decided to keep it open for the public to view. We are also screening a small clip of real footage of Dr Ambedkar. There aren’t many moving images of him in the public domain despite him being a national hero for so long. We received this footage very recently. He is seen coming to Bombay to attend the All India Scheduled Caste Federation and being received by a large audience. There is no sound but there is narration,” he said.

The festival saw the screening of a total of nine films made by distinguished filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Late Prem Vaidya, Jayoo Patwardhan and Nachiket Patwardhan.