About his recent release titled Anek, producer Anubhav Sinha is clear — this is not a film for the Northeast, it is about the Northeast and aimed to strike a chord with mainland India.
In one of the scenes, a North Indian character tells professional boxer Aido’s (Andrea Kevishusa) coach, “Tumhare yaha toh family aapas mein daaru pee lete hain dog tikki ke saath, nai? (In your region, families drink with each other and eat dog tikki, isn’t it?).” Right from the first scene, the film brings to light the incessant racism that people from the Northeast, or more specifically, those with Mongoloid features face every day. The character also says, “Joke tha, joke (It was just a joke)” because somehow, that is supposed to make everything better.
Anek is a commentary on the diversity of India and how even imprecise Hindi gets sidelined in a country that easily gets tussled into the politics of ‘national language’. By focussing on the Northeast, it calls out the hypocrisy of the ‘homogeneity’ argument.
The viral video of Ayushmann Khurrana, who plays the role of Anek’s protagonist Aman, talking about what defines one as a ‘true Indian’ with J.D. Chakravarthy is just the tip of the iceberg. It is a much longer dialogue that looks at how regions are targeted as oddities instead of being celebrated for not fitting the bill.
Peace is a subjective hypothesis
Anek manages to showcase the complex layers of the insurgency in the Northeast, and it does that well. While each event had its unique history and purpose, most of them were forced to ‘fit in’ in the film. The lived reality of everyday violence emerges best in a scene where a group of carefree school children on bicycles are cowering, ears covered when policemen and insurgents exchange fire over their heads. Anek documents drugs, illegal trade and the repercussions of long-drawn conflict flawlessly.
The reference to the peace accord recalls the 2015 Nagaland Peace Accord signed to end the decades-long insurgency in the Northeast state of Nagaland. Seven years later, it is yet to materialise.
Nicco, Elma and Horen are villagers caught in the loop of the ‘peace’ talks that cause more violence. It is a grim but accurate look into how it is ultimately the commoners who suffer the most. Johnson is a State-fabricated character blamed for the violence that it inflicts on the citizens. The rebel group chooses to name itself ‘Johnson’ in defiance. Anek shows a cycle where the oppressed break out and take up arms, only to become dictatorial figures themselves. In the scene where a rebel looks at the face of a policeman he shot, the pause is powerful—it is ultimately the face of his own people, not an ‘Other’.
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Representing right
Article 15, a 2019 film sported the same director-actor duo. The movie has Ayushmann play a Brahmin who questions the brutality unleashed to maintain the caste status quo in a village in North India. Anek also approaches the saviour complex but just stops short. Chest-thumping is avoided, and the Army personnel who indulge in such acts is almost caricaturish. What the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act (AFSPA) has done to the Northeast is only mildly hinted at, but the point drives home.
It is definitely heartening to see people from the Northeast represent themselves on screen, speaking their own language and their ‘Hindi’. Music director Anurag Saikia, too, blends notes creatively with diverse forms of music, something that the Northeast is already well-known for — from local songs to choir to rap, the music adds to the narrative.
The dialogues are hard-hitting. Thankfully, Northeastern people in Anek don’t try hard to speak ‘saaf’ Hindi, and there is liberal use of Nagamese and juxtaposition of songs and music from the region that keeps the action gripping as well as poignant.
The film also looks at Kashmir and makes comparisons with Northeast—both regions breathtakingly beautiful and deeply wounded by the violence. Abrar Bhatt (Manoj Pahwa) utters “Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast, Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast”, a phrase often used to describe the beauty of Kashmir, for the Northeast.
Anek does not end in a resolution, and you wonder if Hindustan did win. The national flag does not quite evoke pride and joy, but leaves one deeply uncomfortable as the question remains hanging — just how much does a person from the Northeast have to do to be considered ‘Indian’? Do they have to win a medal? What about those who can’t?
For those from the Northeast, Anek is a much-delayed acknowledgement of what it means to belong to the region. For the rest of India, hopefully, the film draws the message home that diversity is often sacrificed for homogeneity.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)