Raat: Night Time In Small India

This film is a pixelated amalgamation of life in rural India. In segments, we see what life is like at night in the deepest corners of our nation. The difference is, we’re seeing all of this through the eyes of people who have never gotten their hands on a camera before. Documentation is alien to them, and what they choose to show as a first glance of these places leaves the audience with something to think about.

This film does not drive a larger message per se, it is an exploration of the towns, their people, and their citizens. Tabassum, Santra and Ajfarul are some of the 14 filmmakers (also activists) that came together to make this film in collaboration with The Third Eye’s Learning Lab.

The editing of this film is slow, it lets you stay with the shots for minutes at a time. You become an observer, just like the makers of the film. As these activists explore these places, they question the status quo. In a flour mill, run by a family, a girl questions why the wife is toiling away while the husband lazes on the floor. She questions how women are often, in a Luddite fashion, told to stay away from machinery, and from work. But at the grassroots of these larger notions, women are more than pulling their weight.

When one of the filmmakers is recording a liquor store, she is questioned by the men around, “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?” Every single time, she answered matter-of-factly, and with surprising patience. “I am just recording a video,” she said.

Sailee Dadarkar, a member of team curation at DFF, said, “Although the film was a little slow, this film was very different from what all of us are used to seeing. We were seeing people who had the opportunity to use a camera for the very first time, which, for them, was a very big thing. As an audience, a lot of us watched it with a very narrow point of view, which hindered us from seeing the bigger picture. The discussion would have helped us realise this because in cases like this, it helps the most to hear from the makers themselves.”