my thoughts on the documentary and my saturday
Sep 12, 2026
"These people have nothing and they have so much hope, how can I be so cynical when I have so much" - paraphrased sentence by Satvik during the Q & A
The documentary interviewed four independent candidates standing for elections across the country by Meghnad, filmed by Satvik.
I'd recommend everybody to watch it, there are still some tickets for tomorrow left here for bangalore
One of the easiest things to notice in the documentary is how hard it is for our MCs to reach - people & places. The familiar feeling of stuck-ness when it comes to dealing with anything government related. And its easy to forget this in a fast moving city because of the stark contrast where getting a new passport verified takes a whole day. And I felt it in the documentary too. Even the people at grassroots serving their own communities feel like mystical creatures that you need to go on an adventure to find out where they live. The roads not having the infra for people to be mobile, people never being anywhere on time. Frustrating things that drive an autistic person (me) nuts.
When they interviewed P.D. Rai I realised something "I considered myself to be quite efficient and it still took me 2 years to figure out how it works in the parliament" you don't find solutions for an ideal world that doesn't exist, you work within your constraints, find out everything you can and you make the most of it. It's what the documentary does too - it shows the frustration of trying to reach something that is hard to get hold of, making the most out of - the time they do get with the candidates on-screen, off-screen and the footage of everything left in the thick fog after it.
The question was "how do they do independent candidacy and be successful?" It almost felt like the people themselves have no idea - or maybe they did at some point but they've reached heights of power that they don't have to think anymore, of the guy that started with nothing.
There was a conversation about this later - Meghnad talked about phases of gaining power that was pattern matching I've come to expect out of my interactions with him "the first 5 years, they work really hard ; the next five they realise they don't have to do all this work to stay put ; the 5 years after, they're so drunk with power they don't have to think of anything else" paraphrased, but I saw this in some of the indies too, they almost don't even remember or want to remember how they got there. But they're perfectly aware of what they have to do to keep being where they are - by inflicting fear.
This is in no way, a critique of the independent candidadates. This is however a critique of how culture trickles down, when no one questions it, even on those that care about their constituents (or atleast I hope they do). I stand with Meghnad's "more independents are better because parties are way too large to care about what's happening in your ward" and wanting more of us out there keeping our feet on the ground and caring for what we see.
I also really enjoyed Satvik's random mid sentence cuts he'd do and after a portion is done there's water, cats and cows. Very india, very speaks to my kind of AuDHD. I have space to breathe and absorb things that were shown to me. More importantly feel for the life (both nature and people) that will continue to be extracted for the current government's goals to get nothing in return.
Hearing one of the candidates' (Astami Roy) stories of how her siblings don't have anything to do, no jobs and opportunities to take and how she had to do this. It broke my heart, the resilience in her heart to do something like this feels very unimaginable for someone like me that knows this system and is broken by it. The close up shots of her energy on the mic giving a speech and then cutting to her giving the said speech to an empty road was chilling and weirdly wholesome to watch. I hope she makes it, I hope her siblings make it. Hell, I hope my siblings make it. We created this system so that we could all have things to do that pushes humanity further. But here I am, over qualified, constantly educating myself yet unemployed and ironically, given a free ticket to a fundraising documentary film because I couldn't make it there otherwise. She is all of us and yet the difference is that she has hope, energy and optimism to hold a mic to an empty street.
I'm feeling a lot, I will continue to ache for this country and its people, and hope that I have the strength to wake up everyday and try - to get a job, to care what happens to the taxes I will end up paying when I do get that tech job again and fight for that billion year old rock in Lalbagh that fucking DKS was gonna break to make a fucking tunnel for him and his rich friends.
Bonus interaction with Satvik
"Hello" me
"Hi" satvik waves and about to leave
"Umm I had to say something" offering my hand to shake, wtf why am I? I
never shake anyone's hand
"umm ohh" shakes hand
"I've been watching your movies for a long time and they've made me very
emotional, please make more movies" vision black out Satvik nods, smiles
and politely leaves
~ fuuuuuuuuck, maybe I shouldn't have said anything or said something else
~
follows an auto ride of everything I could've done better in that
conversation, jesus christ, never talk to anyone again. Please end me
lord. Oh that font he used in the movie was great.
Love,
Santa
PS : I think I have astigmatism