Final Solution

Movie: Final Solution

Genre: Documentary
Director: Rakesh Sharma
Rating: Compulsory Viewing
Review:

"Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes"

"religion is the opium of the masses"

Karl Marx

What do you write about a movie that shakes the very belief on which a nation is founded. A movie that shows Hitler and Mussolini live on; albeit wearing Saffron and brandishing trishuls. A movie that makes you squirm hearing what a man can do to another man. Final Solution is not as much a movie as it is a damning piece of video that takes you right in the middle of a land where religion and politics were mixed in horrific proportions to produce the most devastating results. Welcome to Gujarat 2002.

Sample this, a five year old boy recounting the deaths of his grandparents, aunts , uncles, parents to the last gory detail and declaring war on all Hindus when he grows up. A graveyard keeper refusing to speak of the condition of the bodies that he had to bury post riots. A VHP spokesperson stating that Muslims must accept Hindus as elder brothers and respect and obey to stay in the country. A Muslim crying after the election that unanimously brought Modi back to power, clutching to his voter's identity card fearing that one day he may be asked to prove his Indianness.

Final Solution takes you from election rallies to peoples drawing rooms all the while doing nothing but asking the right questions to the right people. To the movie's credit it does not allow the viewer to be distracted by some voice over or running commentary. All it does is club the right excerpt at the right place, at times bringing out the Contradiction so brutally that it is saddening. In one scene we are taken deep into Gujarat where the BJP election campaign is in full flow. The speaker is spitting venom; proudly stating that he had cleansed the area of all Muslims; he says if anyone goes to the booth and does not vote for the BJP, the ghosts of Godhra incident shall not let him/her rest in peace. The scene then cuts to a jubilant LK Advani post the Gujarat victory bloating that his party must be admired for maintaining a dignified silence on Godhra issue during the campaign when they had the chance to use it as an election issue.

In an interview the director Rakesh Sharma says "I decided to stay away from what I call the 'bookshelf interview' - having 'The Expert', 'The Sociologist', 'The Activist' who attempt to explain events to the audience. I wanted primary material, people's own voices, whether it was from within the minority community, the Hindu families who had lost lives, or the rightwing leadership" It helps, the movie is absolutely rooted to the ground. Hence what you get is not what any expert thinks of the riots but victims, survivors, witnesses, participants and perpetrators of that horrific event.

Strangely enough the issues raised in the movie are not specific to the Gujarat riots only. It is a testament on the use of divisive politics; in this case religion. But the recent Raj Thackeray diatribe against North Indians is eerily on the same lines.( Only if Hitler was alive, he would've been proud to have seen these guys in action). Frequently during the movie the director uses the dictionary meaning of words just to put forth his point, words like Genocide, Ghetto are explained to the viewer followed by some telling footage just to confirm your worst fear. Yes what happened in Gujarat was Genocide. Ghettos are not things of the past where Jews were segregated and later exterminated, it also happened in aapno Amdavad.

The movie was banned by the Indian Censorship Board. Rakesh Sharma then had to use a "pirate and circulate" effort wherein he circulated 10,000 copies of the movie free of cost asking people to circulate them among 5 more people and so on. Within 2 months 80,000 copies of the movie had found it's way to people. One of those was Nishant, my next door neighbor who got the movie during his IIT days. I don't think that the movie is still released for general viewing and you would probably have to download it, but no matter how you get it make sure you watch it.