The official trailer of “An Insignificant Man” a political documentary film based on the life of Arvind Kejriwal released on 25th of October 2017 in India. With its release started speculations on social media about nature of the film, its political inclination, presentation, biases, etc.
As per directors Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, “An Insignificant Man” is unbiased and does not endorse any political ideology. They recorder 400 hours of footage over the course of a year to make an unbiased documentary film of 95 minutes. The film’s site says, “What is unique in the Indian story is that some of the protesters decided to form a political party and fight state-wide elections in New Delhi. This is the story of the Aam Aadmi Party or the Common Man’s Party. “An Insignificant Man” aims to chronicle the journey of the party from its formation in December 2012 to the Delhi state elections in December 2013.”
Because “An Insignificant Man” is based on Kejriwal the drama king of politics, there could be a fair chance that “An Insignificant Man” is a propaganda film made in order to revive the declining reputation of AAP and sinking trust ratings of Kejriwal, though makers are free to claim that the documentary is neither in support of Kejriwal nor against him or AAP or any other political party for that matter.
People who know Kejriwal and have observed him closely since the beginning of his political career won’t buy the argument that he can allow film makers to make an unbiased movie. The man who fires colleagues on slight disagreements and hurls baseless accusations at the prime minister cannot be taken as a very tolerant man. An unbiased movie will be an all-out anti-AAP, anti-Kejriwal movie.
One more reason why this “An Insignificant Man” can be viewed as an upcoming propaganda material is the attitude of the film makers. As reported by some media, makers were asked by censor board for NOC from Modi, Sheela Dixit and Kejriwal whose footage were used in film without permission but, instead of following the process, makers wasted no time in joining the victim gang and dubbing the move as an attack on freedom of creativity.
“An Insignificant Man” trailer too starts on a mixed note when more people raise hands for stopping Kejriwal from forming a political party and then like it happens in Superhero movie, the story of an unusual man unfolds, The unusual man takes on big bad villains who treat city like their hunting grounds and prey on hapless commoners but remains hated. People may not approve a superhero’s method, but all of them agree that his intentions are pure. The trailer presents Kejriwal like the same misunderstood superhero. The final shot has people cheering about his decision to join politics and an old woman asserting her support.
Social media is filled with mixed claims. Kejriwal is to his supporters, what Ram Raheem is for his. His followers follow him blindly and counter anything against him with unmatched aggression. They are aggressively and blindly supporting “An Insignificant Man” too, their verbal diatribe can be seen on Social media in its full glory.
As claimed by makers of “An Insignificant Man”, they started working on this documentary in 2012 itself and first screening was done around 2016 so we can assume that film is limited to the journey of Kejriwal from creation of AAP till his winning Delhi elections.
If “An Insignificant Man” covers 2015 Vidhan Sabha elections as well where AAP had a land slide victory than we may get a chance to watch auto driver Lali. And who would like to miss the famous pledge of Kejriwal in the name of his children “I pledge in the name of my children, will neither ally with BJP nor with Congress” and soon after formed government with support of Congress.
The makers of “An Insignificant Man” mentioned during trailer release that they have more than 400 hours of recording and have made 4 movies while editing “an insignificant man”. If they have a plan to release rest of the recordings later, we would like them to show the episode where Kejriwal claims having 370 pages of proof against Sheela Dixit in his possession. As makers were always with Kejriwal they may also want to show us the recording of meetings held between AAP and Congress that led to their alliance government in Delhi, or kicking out episode of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, or when he decided to give his MLAs an out of term appraisal or when he defended fake degree holder Tomar or how his MLAs were holding office of profit or how he meekly apologized to Gadakari or how Jaitley squeezed him dry or how he transferred Kapil Mishra from Delhi Jal Board when he wanted to expose some wrongdoings or how Shunglu Committee tore into Kejriwal for rampant corruption or how his favorite minister Satyendra Jain indulged in corruption and favoritism or how he hugged Lalu Yadav or how he let Delhi stink because MCD was under BJP or how he criticized demonetisation or how he asked for proof of Surgical strike or how he left Delhi to win elections in Punjab and Goa or how Ration card became butt of jokes in his regime or how he spent a night at a Khalistani Operative’s house or how…….just forget it. You know, I know everyone knows that filmmakers cannot show all this.
To conclude, It will be fun to watch a propaganda movie on Kejriwal. It will be serious fun because in the age of information when everyone knows what happened, it will be fun to see the justifications. We would like to congratulate Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla for their valuable efforts to make this documentary film and wish them good luck.
And Kejriwal ji, eagerly waiting for your expert review of “An Insignificant Man”.
Watch “An Insignificant Man” trailer here:
