Ram Gopal Varma: ‘Satluj’ is not a film but a deep wound that will never heal!

Chennai, July 7 (IANS) Backing director Honey Trehan’s recently released film ‘Satluj’, well known filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has now said that it was not a film but a deep would that would never heal.

Taking to his X timeline to share his thoughts on the film, which he disclosed he had now finished watching, Ram Gopal Varma said, “Just saw SATLUJ and it is not a film , but a deep wound that will never heal. It stirs up the sludge in one of the darkest chapters of our history. This is cinema used as confrontation, where @diljitdosanjh acts with a quiet fury with no chest thumping heroism. His only weapons are a ledger and a conscience. @rampalarjun adds layers of moral rot in the institutional complicity that feels chillingly realistic.”

Showering praise on director Honey Trehan, he wrote, “Director @honeytrehan, instead of sensationalising the horror, unfolds the film like a slow burn investigative thriller through bureaucratic files, cremation records, and hushed conversations. This restraint makes the brutality of the subject matter hit that much harder because it explodes with the force of truth and not exploitation.”

Varma observed that the philosophical core of the film — about how a democracy devours its own citizens and then tries to erase the evidence — had been explored without any preachiness and that this was no normal achievement.

“The various issues surrounding its exhibition and publication prove that any art which makes the powerful uncomfortable has done its job, and that is the true purpose of true art, which SATLUJ is,” Ram Gopal Varma remarked.

“It is highly courageous, essential filmmaking because it unsettles, educates, and lingers. In the times where main stream chases spectacle and popcorn cinema, ‘Satluj’ shoots out a hard reminder of what cinematic medium can truly achieve when it takes on truth and honesty,” Varma said and added that ‘Satluj’ was a film that had to be seen, shown, discussed, debated and not ENCOUNTERED like the victims in the film.

He made an appeal on the occasion. “My appeal to all the powers is, please don’t do to SATLUJ what has been done to JASWANT SINGH KALRA,” he said and ended by recalling Ayn Rand’s quote. ‘Truth hits harder when when one tries to hide it’.”

For the unaware, Satluj, which has been directed by Honey Trehan, is inspired by the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Kalra, an activist who is believed to have exposed mass extra judicial killings by the Punjab police during the time Punjab was battling the problems of militancy and insurgency.

The film, which has had to face considerable delays in its release, was finally released on the OTT platform Zee5 on July 3 this year. However, the film was silently taken down 48 hours later, with the platform going on to state that the film would be unavailable until further notice.

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IANS

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