I Am 20: A Documentary Film For The Ages

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[{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1514526185877","data":"I'm yet to watch a documentary that has moved me as much as I Am 20 has. <\/p>This is a simple, 18 minute documentary film made in 1967 by a director named S.N.S Sastry, commissioned by the Films Division of India, a state run organisation responsible for making informational documentaries of India,, among others. Of all of their work, I Am 20 is undoubtedly the most iconic. <\/p>The premise of the documentary is that Sastry seeks out young men and women born on August 15, 1947, our Independence Day from the yoke of the British Empire, and asks them questions about how India, a once proud country now broken and brought to its knees by the empire, is treating them, what they think about the country, their hopes and dreams, ambitions and inspirations. <\/p>While the premise itself sounds exciting, nothing prepared me for the interviews I would hear in the documentary itself. <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1514526601599","data":"5a45df7c14ec8"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1514526603482","data":"Sastry is a clever director, even while making a documentary. Frustrated, no doubt, with the lack of opinionated 20-year olds to be found in 1967, Sastry bent the rules a little and went to IIT Bombay, where he would interview a wide variety of 20-year olds, not just those who were born on the 15th of August, 1947. <\/p>The most immediate thing we notice is not the setting, not the people, but what they have to say. The young 20-year olds express dissatisfaction with the government, pride in their country's independence, hope and cynicism for the country's future. As I watched, jaw dropped, interviews of men and women who were 20, 50 years ago, it struck me like a bolt of lightning just how much had changed since then, and it saddened me even more that so much had remained the same. <\/p>Young men and women, despite a difference of half a century, seem to still have the same level of discontentment with the world and their country, some 20-year olds display a maturity and knowledge well beyond what is expected of their age, like the only named person from the documentary, T.N. Subramaniam, a soft spoken young man who carried himself like a professor with tenure. <\/p>\"It's become a fashion to gather and hate the country,\" Subramaniam astutely observes, before saying that things needed to be changed and that he would love to be a part of that, \"It's an experiment, and I would like to be a part of that.\" <\/p> <\/p>"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1514527978490","data":"5a45dda11eab6"},{"type":"img","id":"img-uid-1514527957510","data":"5a45dd9dd5dfa"},{"type":"txt","id":"rich_1514528054666","data":"The reason I'm posting this now, at the beginning of the New Year, is because I want to tell you all, us all actually, us 20s somethings disillusioned with the country, that this is not someone else's country but our own and it is up to us to fix it as the days go by. <\/p> What I also want to say is that you shouldn't be required to take this enormous responsibility on yourself, if you want to leave the country for greener pastures abroad, feel free to do so, it is your right to do so. But if you're the kind that wants to stay back and fight, all I want to say is that you're not alone. You'll never be alone.  <\/p>So remember that while I do not fault you for leaving the country, I just want to remind you that India is a constant wound that we must care of, if for nothing else but because it is ours, it is mine, it is yours, it belongs to us, this country, this land, belongs to us, and it is up to us to keep it as open as possible and share it with fellow sons and daughters of the soil. <\/p>We have to become more accepting, kinder and gentler with people, we have to realise that the rat race we were all part of since our childhood only encourages screwing over the other person due to over overpopulated country causing a constant fight for resources. We have to realise that India, while it is yours to inherit and shape, also belongs to the people around you, with their various beliefs, sexual orientations and goals. We should strive to create a truly open and free society where people like the admin of Humans of Hinduvta does not have to fear prosecution and does not have to face death threats on the lives of his wife and child, where men and women are equal and where people are free to love whom they want to love. <\/p>That is my idea of India and I'm willing to fight for that in 2018. I strongly encourage you to check out this documentary, I've posted it below. <\/p>"},{"type":"youtube","id":"vid-url-1514528750992","data":"fA8h74ZW8Ok"}]

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