A Minute of Silence (1999)

In Siwan, a small town in Bihar caught in the vice-like grip of a political strongman, student activist Chandrashekhar Prasad is assassinated in broad daylight for daring to speak out. Back in Delhi, the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus erupts on hearing this news about its former student union president. The students come on the streets to protest the inaction of the administration in spite of eyewitness accounts identifying the perpetrators, and they, too, are met with police water cannons and lathis. In that moment of protest, emerges an idea: to create a testament of Chandrashekhar's courageous and principled brand of politics as a tribute to him and as a mirror to the state of society and politics around. Several television professionals and Chandu's friends get together and, from the footage of television channels on Chandrashekhar, a documentary is created that pulsates with urgency and a purity of purpose that communicates itself to viewers to this day.

Ajay BhardwajDirector