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Chardi Kala
An Ode to Resilience
Speakers
95 mins | Punjabi, Hindi with English Subtitles | India
Trigger Warning: Sensitive Content
Direction, Camera and Editing – Prateek Shekhar
Music – Nipun Bhatnagar
Colorist – Divya Kehr
Drone – Sashawhyy
Mixing Engineer – Abhishek Singh
In September 2020, the Indian government passed three agricultural laws aimed at liberalising the farm economy. Soon after, farmers from across the country gathered at the borders of India’s national capital, New Delhi, for one of the biggest non-violent protests in modern history.
Expressing their concerns about the dangers of corporatisation of agriculture, farmers articulated detailed and nuanced criticism against what they believed were unjust laws. Over the year-long protest, the farmers slept and cooked on the national highway, braving extreme weather conditions and hostility from their government, until the laws were repealed.
Along with the strong mobilisation by the farmer unions, it was the embodiment of Sikh principle of sewa (selfless service for the betterment of society) and the expression chardi kala (eternal optimism) that made the movement dynamic, unique and strengthened its undying and indomitable spirit.
Inspired by their everyday resilience, Chardi Kala follows the journey of the farmers’ protest until their victory. The one-person-crew film observes, listens and documents the farmers’ comprehensive arguments, their acts of selfless service and the spirit of eternal optimism that imbued this grassroots-led movement as it made history.
In collaboration with:
Speakers
Prateek Sekhar
After completing his Bachelors in Sociology from Delhi University, Prateek Shekhar did his Masters in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai. As part of his Masters, he co-directed two documentaries – Not Caste in Stone (2014) and Govandi, Crime aur Camera (2015) – which were screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2016; Astra Film Festival 2016, Romania and Urban Lens Film Festival 2016, New Delhi among others.
Prateek has assisted filmmaker and video artist Amar Kanwar on his films and video art installations Such a Morning (2017) and The Peacock’s Graveyard (2023). His documentary film Chai Darbari (2019) won the Best Short Documentary award at the 12th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), India and was screened at numerous film festivals. His debut feature length documentary Chardi Kala – An Ode to Resilience (2023) premiered and won Second Best Short Documentary Award at the 15th IDSFFK, India.
Swati Dandekar
Swati Dandekar is a documentary filmmaker and a film educator based in Bangalore, India, with a special interest in creating visual narratives of the living history around her, of people, places, ideas, traditions, practices, and the continuous process of change. In addition, she has been closely involved with designing media for education. As a founder trustee of Vikalp Bengaluru, she has been actively screening documentary films and curating festivals in Bangalore city for over fifteen years. Swati heads the Film programme at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore.
