Following the lives of some of the country’s most courageous journalists behind Khabar Lahariya, India’s only all-female-run newspaper, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh craft “the most inspiring journalism movie, maybe ever,” The Oscar-nominated Writing With Fire is situated in a period that ties Khabar Lahariya's transition from print to digital, and at the same time when Uttar Pradesh was the breeding ground of violence against the most vulnerable part of the society.
The film takes us through footage captured over four years, opening with the 2016 state elections and closing with the 2019 general elections, both of which were won by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). We are introduced to the documentary’s protagonist, also the Chief Reporter of Khabar Lahariya, Meera, and crime reporters Suneeta and Shyamkali. Armed with their smartphones and limited electricity, these are women who have hope in the essence of democracy. Even though they are aware of the fact that they cannot escape their place in the caste system, or their gender, they believe that what they are doing will change the country that we live in.
While the film mostly operates in the physical space, depicting the nature of atrocities the women have to deal with, we still get to observe the emotional toll that it takes on them. Shyamkali is a single mother who is reporting on the rape and murder case of a lower-caste girl. Suneeta, a young unmarried girl shares her own story about the level of assessment her family has to face till she decides to get married while simultaneously uncovering a local mining mafia racket. And Meera, the most natural protagonist the film could have had, is seen facing the brunt of it all. Profiling a Yuvi Vahini leader and politely probing the ruling party in a way that reveals their religious bigotry.
However, we do not learn much about how the newspaper was founded in 2002 because the documentary focuses more on the women serving as journalists and each passionately following their stories rather than being a documentary on the newspaper. Several times in the film we see them commuting alone across Uttar Pradesh, in the film’s most visually stunning and terrifying shots – in trains, buses, taxis, and on foot becomes the filmmaker’s brilliant way to show the dangerous landscape of the work that they do.
Unlike the three reporters, the film follows a non-confrontational style. One of the directors, Rintu Thomas, spoke about the process of making the film in detail at the 10th Documentary Film Festival of Sophia College. She said, “As a filmmaker, I do not believe in confrontation. My style is to understand 'why'. I aim to gain a deeper understanding of why people think the way that they do.
Especially when it comes to people that you disagree with, leading with friendship and a certain amount of respect makes a whole lot of difference and then that space becomes less threatening towards you. Of course, there are environments where you might be singled out. Like when Suneeta was surrounded by these men and I remember telling my crew to bolt if Suneeta bolts,” said Thomas while interacting with the students and sharing one of the frightening incidents when the crew was scared stiff while following one of Suneeta’s stories.
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