Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai: The film ABVP doesn't want you to see

On Tuesday August 25, the Progressive Students Union demonstrated and hosted a screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney's documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai which was in news after a few screenings were cancelled at the nth hour. Reality doesn't just bite, it stings in Sawhney's film, which will make not only the BJP but also the ruling Samajwadi Party extremely uncomfortable. But the one to suffer the biggest dent to its image will be the NDA government, which won 71 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections last year.

For two hours and 16 minutes, Sawhney turns the camera on the Muslim victims/survivors - men, women and children - the Jats, the calculating politicians, the farmers, the women and more and lets them tell the tale of how their region once celebrated as Mohabbatnagar became the infamous district in western Uttar Pradesh which saw its worst sectarian violence in September 2013. It resulted in the death of hundreds, rapes, destruction of property and left 80,000 homeless, 90 per cent of them being Muslims and the remaining Dalits. That it happened just seven months before the Lok Sabha elections is a scenario not lost on Sawhney, the citizens and the larger audience.

A man in the documentary says that "Jab se Modi ne entry maari hai (Ever since Modi has entered UP)" for the election campaign, there has been unrest in the area. Another man states that until the riots nobody had even known of the BJP in Muzaffarnagar, which had for long been the bastion of Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal. These fearless voices are aware of the political games at play and how they are ruining their livelihoods. They are the stars of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai as they paint a compelling and troubling portrait of a region which is now divided, insecure and distressed.

It's hard to find heroes in this insightful, disturbing watch but one can easily spot the troublemakers. The BJP politicians Sanjeev Baliyan, Hukum Singh, Suresh Rana and Sangeet Som are the provocateurs whose speeches thrive on deepening the animosity between the two communities for political gain. "We don't enjoy rioting but if you mess with us there will be consequences" seems to be the running theme of their campaign, which blamed the riots on Muslim youth harassing Hindu women. This divide-and-rule policy clearly worked with Baliyan winning the Muzaffarnagar seat in the 2014 elections.

Taking the talking heads format, Sawhney gets people to share their plight and voice their thoughts on the tragedy. A few of them stand out such as Praveen who drives the filmmaker through his village pointing out the deserted houses of his Muslim neighbours and fondly remembers their contribution to the village. It's a telling moment as Praveen shares how the two communities who had once been living in peace turned enemies overnight. There are young women who talk about living with the burden of "family honour" and how Muslims are not to be solely blamed for the teasing and molestation they face on a daily basis. "Gharwaale chedhthe hai," says one young Hindu woman, highlighting again how in most sexual assault cases the perpetrator is known to the victim.

While there are plenty of voices of Muslim victims, the film ends up following and familiarising viewers with only a few. The most memorable here is Khalid, a fruit and vegetable vendor, who has lost a palatial 52-room house and has been forced to start from scratch. One of the film's most poignant moments arrives when we are introduced to Khalid's son Arees who wishes to return to school.

Given that Sawhney and his team devoted at least nine months - September 2013 to May 2014 - to the film, there is an information overload which results in a didactic approach as well as a protracted watch. Sawhney manages to raise many interesting issues - a tad too late in some cases - but also flips through a few pertinent ones such as how a small legion of land-owning Muslims returned to the village after the riots without much trouble. As Sawhney shuttles from one issue to another and there are many - the fall of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, the farmers woes, state government's negligence, Mayawati's dwindling relevance, the indecision among Muslims and Dalits over where their loyalty lies - one wishes there were more details on the background of a few faces who speak frankly about the crisis.

The ultimate message of the documentary is clear. All political parties want a piece of the Muzaffarnagar pie. In process, the biggest losers of the violence are the people - especially the poor and meek. There is bitterness among the victims who suffer from police apathy. The state government accuses them of being the BJP and Congress sympathisers. Meanwhile the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whose appearance at the packed screening drew laughs, sees them as the ISI recruits. "Our only mistake is we didn't kill," says a frustrated victim.

Shots of desecrated mosques, houses in ruins and tattered tents in the relief camps offer a depressing sight of the aftermath. The BJP though won't be entirely displeased. They will get to witness the Modi wave, with a few locals demonstrating their blind faith in the prime minister. But as an ageing woman outside a polling booth rightly points out, "If people don't live, nothing will be left". That's a statement all politicians need to heed.