Anand Patwardhan's new documentary Reason, about India's saffron invasion, premieres at TIFF 2018

National award-winning documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan’s new film, Reason, premiered at TIFF 2018 over the weekend and it has generated considerable buzz over its urgent subject matter. The 261-minute-long film was screened in the TIFF Docs section among other notable films like Quincy, Putin’s Witnesses and Walking on Water. In its in-depth examination of Indian society, the film explores just how the country slid away from a secular democracy to a religiously divided one. [caption id=“attachment_5163921” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Anand Patwardhan. Image via Twitter[/caption] Neatly divided into eight chapters, the film opens with an exploration of the work of anti-caste activist Govind Pansare and famed rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, who fought against what he called “blind belief” and was later assassinated. Later chapters examine the Dalit struggle, the roots of terrorism and how outrage fuelled by religious extremism often ends with mob violence. Patwardhan, with the aid of interviews, archive sequences and fresh footage, provides context to India’s descent with its saffron invasion. Cameron Bailey, writing for TIFF, remarks: “Reason is not an easy film to watch, nor should it be. The film denounces — and depicts — violence perpetrated or fuelled by religious nationalists pushing to make India a Hindu state. As Reason builds and expands toward its conclusion, the scale of the dangers India faces becomes clear, and connections are made between the country’s inner conflicts and the similar political fires burning all over the world. Even with countless people of conscience offering resistance, the film ends with yet one more assassination. This time it is a journalist.” Scroll’s Nandini Ramnath called it “one of the most important documentaries to emerge in the Age of Modi.” Patwardhan, one of India’s most prolific documentarians, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala in July earlier this year. He had previously won a Special Jury Prize at the National Awards, 2012 for Jai Bhim Comrade and a National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film in 2004 for his movie War and Peace (Jang Aur Aman), which traced the development of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan.