While We Watched Explained

While We Watched / नमस्कार मैं रवीश कुमार
Director:Vinay Shukla[1]
Producer:Luke W. Moody, Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla
Starring:Ravish Kumar, Sushil Bahuguna, Deepak Chaubey, Sushil Mohapatra, Swarolipi Sengupta, Saurabh Shukla
Music:Joaquin Garcia
Cinematography:Amaan Shaikh, Vinay Shukla
Editing:Abhinav Tyagi
Studio:BRITDOC Films
LONO Studio
Runtime:94 minutes
Country:United Kingdom
Language:English, Hindi

While We Watched (titled नमस्कार मैं रवीश कुमार, or Greetings, I am Ravish Kumar in Hindi) is a 2022 Indian documentary film by Vinay Shukla (documentary filmmaker), profiling the NDTV news editor Ravish Kumar's resolute journalistic independence in the backdrop of general media bias in India[2] [3] The film premiered world-wide at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, winning the Amplify Voices award.[4] At its Asian premiere in the 27th Busan International Film Festival, it won the Cinephile award[5] and the International Competition at DocPoint Helsinki.[6]

Background and production

Vinay Shukla says he made the film in an attempt to understand the feelings of journalists and anchors like Ravish Kumar as they try to present news and speak truth to power:

Ravish Kumar agreed to being filmed provided it did not interfere with his work. Vinay Shukla with a three-person crew shot the raw footage for the documentary between 2018 and 2020. Since the documentary was completely unscripted, the narrative was primarily crafted during editing.[7] It took another two years for a final version to emerge, with Shukla crediting Abhinav Tyagi and Reshma Ramachandran for the way the film's narrative is scripted and edited.[8]

The crew shot for eight to nine hours every day starting from noon, accompanying Ravish Kumar from his home to the studio and stopping only when he finally returned at night. Shukla decided early on not to focus on the other prominent journalists in NDTV as his main inspiration was a sense he got that Kumar was at a crossroads in his career, tired of being a hero. Shooting continuously, and without a script over two years, also produced a lot of footage. Shukla had to therefore leave out most of it. He regrets being unable to show the whimsical, humorous side of Kumar as it did not quite fit into the mood the documentary establishes.

Synopsis

While We Watched explores the changes in contemporary Indian mainstream media over the previous decade, through profiling Ravish Kumar, senior executive editor at NDTV, at work in the studio and with his subjects.[9] Indian media ownership,[10] bias[11] and the post-truth, divisive, populist content[12] [13] [14] have led to many mainstream television news channels being labelled Godi media (equivalent to the phrase lapdog media, and incidentally coined by Ravish Kumar[15]).

The documentary follows Kumar as he tries to stick to factual news, criticizing the Indian government and its ecosystem whenever instances of incompetent governance and majoritarian policies emerge. It chronicles the discussions between Kumar and the NDTV team on the events that they need to cover, the preparatory work of fact-checking and witness interviews before Kumar can go live on the primetime show he anchors. It contrasts the coverage by Kumar with that of competing television channels whose anchors are shown hyperbolically conflating criticism of the government's policies with treason and going on diatribes against alleged internal and external enemies of India. It also covers the threats of violence against the NDTV news team, and the financial troubles plaguing media houses that are seen as critics of the BJP, the ruling party in India. Kumar is filmed interacting with his wife and young daughter - particularly having to deal with his daughter's fears for his life - and appearing at public events, alternately being heckled and lauded by audiences. It ends on the highnote of Ravish Kumar winning[16] the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2019.

While We Watched frequently features scenes of NDTV staff cutting cakes to mark the departure of yet another colleague. Raids by tax authorities, dwindling government advertising revenue, banks refusing to provide loans and threats of violence and even arrest have led to many journalists leaving. Shukla observed that these "cake cuttings" were what convinced him to tell the story and in fact became a leitmotif of the documentary.

Reception

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes website, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10.[17]

Christopher Cross in Tilt Magazine notes[18] that as the documentary is "[e]dited to keep everything at a breakneck pace and set over a small period of time, Shukla magnifies the rapid rate with which dissent and opposition can be dismantled when those in power feel threatened." He concludes that it "gets at the heart of the media's role in dividing a country and the ways in which audiences let it happen."

Courtney Small in That Shelf says "A riveting work that will have you mourning the slow death of journalism, While We Watched is an urgent reminder that we all have much to lose if we can no longer tell fact from fiction."[19]

Stephen Saito in The Moveable Feast, while pointing out "If While We Watched has a flaw, it isn't one of its own making when the story it tells has become unfortunately all too common around the world", concludes that "Shukla nimbly shows how interconnected these issues (business and political headwinds) all are... when signs of encouragement are few and far between... and the end product suffers as a result, no longer able to hold power to account."[20]

Pat Mullen in POV Magazine believes that "While We Watched smartly captures the state of contemporary news media with a powerful character study of one reporter's unshakable quest to speak the truth." He observes that the film "oddly reflects the slickness of Kumar's competition. The documentary has the sheen of branded content", but concludes "Amid a seas of vitriolic windbags, the portrait of Kumar's unwavering tenacity is most refreshing."[21]

Monica Reid of Far Out Magazine calls the documentary "an absolute gem... It is an account aimed not only at India but also... at other parts of the world... The situation presented in Indian media surpassed the worst fears of the western world regarding openly partisan, divisive, unashamedly post-truth news reporting."

Awards and nominations

scope=colYearscope=colAssociationscope=colAwardscope=colRecipientsscope=colResultclass=unsortable scope=col
20222022 Toronto International Film FestivalAmplify Voices AwardWhile We Watched
27th Busan International Film FestivalBusan Cinephile Award
202339th IDA Documentary AwardsBest Feature Documentary[22]
2023Peabody AwardsBest Documentary Film[23]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: While We Watched (Namaskar! Main Ravish Kumar) . 15 October 2022 . Toronto International Film Festival.
  2. Web site: Amid threats and signal cuts, India's top independent TV anchor battles on – but for how long? . 7 September 2022 . Leela . Jacinto . . 15 October 2022.
  3. Web site: Chris . Reed . While We Watched Review . 13 September 2022 . 17 October 2022 . The Moveable Feast.
  4. Web site: Steven Spielberg's 'The Fabelmans' Wins Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Award. Deadline. Pete. Hammond. September 18, 2022. September 18, 2022.
  5. News: 2022-10-14 . Vinay Shukla's documentary While We Watched wins the Cinephile Award at Busan International Film Festival 2022 . 2022-10-15.
  6. Web site: 7 February 2023 . The Best Documentary Films Awarded at DocPoint . 7 February 2023 . docpointfestival.fi.
  7. Web site: Who is Vinay Shukla? And why is his new film While We Watched getting people excited and talking? . 27 September 2022 . 15 October 2022 . Joshi . Namrata . Firstpost.
  8. Web site: "There is no one saviour of journalism" . 20 September 2022 . Sneha . Bhura . . 15 October 2022.
  9. Web site: While We Watched Review: Vinay Shukla explores the dark landscape of Indian journalism . 2 October 2022 . 15 October 2022 . Monica . Reid . Far Out Magazine.
  10. News: Takeover of NDTV by India's richest man worries journalists . Alasdair . Pal . Aftab . Ahmed . 26 August 2022 . 15 October 2022 . Reuters.
  11. Web site: India cannot breathe. Is the media choking it further? . 7 May 2021 . 15 October 2022 . Ruhi . Khan . Danish . Khan . London School of Economics Media Department.
  12. News: Bloodlust TV: Calling out India's hate media . . Manisha . Pande . 21 October 2019 . 15 October 2022.
  13. News: How Narendra Modi has almost killed the Indian media . 12 March 2019 . 15 October 2022 . Nikhil . Inamdar . Quartz India.
  14. News: Supreme Court flags: TV channels chief medium of hate speech . 22 September 2022 . 15 October 2022 . . Ananthakrishnan . G.
  15. Web site: Ismat . Ara . 9 December 2020 . At Farmers' Protest, Field Reporters of 'Godi Media' Channels Face the Heat . 27 December 2020 . The Wire.
  16. Web site: Kumar, Ravish . Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. 15 October 2022.
  17. While We Watched (2022) . while_we_watched . m . May 13, 2024.
  18. Web site: Christopher . Cross . While We Watched Reveals the Destabilization of Democracy in India . 11 September 2022 . 17 October 2022 . Tilt Magazine.
  19. Web site: Courtney . Small . TIFF 2022: While We Watched Review . 11 September 2022 . 17 October 2022 . That Shelf.
  20. Web site: Stephen . Saito . A Journalist's Pursuit of the Truth Leads to Soul Searching in "While We Watched" . 12 September 2022 . 17 October 2022 . The Moveable Feast.
  21. Web site: Pat . Mullen . While We Watched Review: Journalism Under Fire . 13 September 2022 . 17 October 2022 . POV Magazine.
  22. Web site: 'Apolonia, Apolonia,' 'The Mother Of All Lies,' 'Milisuthando' Lead Way As IDA Documentary Awards Announces Nominees – Full List. Carey. Matthew. 21 November 2023. Deadline. 31 December 2023.
  23. News: 2024-05-11 . ALL THAT BREATHES AND WHILE WE WATCHED WIN PEABODY AWARD . 2024-05-28 . The Times of India . 0971-8257.