The other passion of former Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Kumar came to the fore on Thursday when the Jharkhand Police screened a feature length film, scripted by him, to decode Maoism and establish the futility of pursuing the ‘perverted ideology’.
Titled ‘Pratyavartan: The Homecoming’, the 2.4-hour film was premiered at Fun multiplex witnessed by Chief Secretary Rajiv Gauba and DGP D K Pandey among others.
According to Kumar, who is now DG (Home Guards) and Fire Services, the movie was an attempt to expose the perverted ideology of Naxals and their real face by incorporating real happenings based on the real ‘jan adalats’ (Kangaroo Courts).
“We have tried to convey the message that their ideology is totally perverted as it stands today….. Youths have been misguided by them. They have fallen into the trap and we want to bring them out of that trap and bring them into the mainstream through the Naxal surrender policy,” said Kumar. The movie has been produced by ‘Nai Disha Creative’s’ — a society formed by the Jharkhand Police, he said.
According to Kumar, Maoists are indulging in senseless violence; they have this Kangaroo court or ‘Jan Adalat’ which is only a travesty of justice. “Once they decided that one or two persons should be bombed off and they do it in the garb of those Jan Adalats,” he said.
Talking about the background of the making of this film, Kumar said that it all started back in the year 2002 when RR Prasad was DGP and he was posted in Palamu as DIG.
“The then DGP thought that I was the right person to make a drama on the theme as he was of the firm opinion that not only we should deal with the Naxals head-on by carrying out anti-Naxal operations, but also try to expose the ideology which has totally gone astray and perverted,” said the DG (Home Guards). “So, this Naxal theme, based on the records of Naxal cases and also interrogating large number of Naxal cadres, a drama - Phir Ek Nai Subah Hui, was made which was appreciated by all,” said Kumar.
On seeing the success of the drama, director Prakash Jha was of the view that a good film could be made out of that after making certain changes. But suddenly RR Prasad was transferred and the entire project was shelved, he recalled.
“But again, when I took over as DGP Jharkhand in February 2013, I was of the view that the real face of Naxalism must be exposed…. their anti-people and anti-development face has to be exposed and also to bring back the misguided youths who have gone astray,” said Kumar.
Finally, shooting of the film started in July 2013 which got completed in October last year. The censor certificate, however, was obtained on January 21, this year.
“The subtitles in this film were in English, but in order to make this film reach out to the masses in the interiors, I am planning to get it dubbed in other local languages also,” Kumar said. “If he does get a good response to this film, he will definitely be into another film,” said an enthusiastic Kumar.
The most interesting part of the film was that as the team was not convinced that the message they were trying to convey was not conveyed in a forceful manner, the story line was changed a bit and the last scene was shot again. “The entire film was shot in latehar while the end part of the film was shot near Ranchi,” Kumar added.
The film has a total of five songs in it having local artists, including some of the senior police officials in it. It is a low budget film with a total expense of Rs82 lakh, said Kumar.