The film Deja Vu, directed by Bedabrata Pain, was screened at the Mumbai Press Club on 9 March 2024. Director Bedabrata Pain, Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and AIKS President Dr Ashok Dhawale briefly addressed the gathering after the screening. This was followed by a lively discussion. Fighter for secularism Teesta Setalvad, CITU state secretary Dr Vivek Monteiro, AIDWA leaders Sonya Gill, Sugandhi Francis, Rekha Deshpande, and several other activists and journalists were present.
The film begins with the iconic year-long Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM)-led farmers' struggle in India in 2020-21 against the three Farm Laws. It then focuses very effectively on various aspects of the disastrous corporatisation of agriculture, including the dairy, poultry and other sectors in the USA, which began in the 1980s as part of the drive for imperialist globalisation.
The film shows how millions of farmers in the USA were driven to destitution and thousands of them were driven to suicide by the government-corporate nexus, under the name of the 'free market', and under the slogan, 'Get Big or Get Out'. The tragic interviews in the film with several farmers who were actually forced by the corporate giants in the USA to get out, are a grim reminder for us in India. The shocking facts and figures given in the film of the dire effects of corporatisation of agriculture in the USA are also eye-openers for us.
The film serves a warning that what was the American farmers' bitter past could be the Indian farmers' equally bitter future. In that sense, the future meets the past, giving the film its apt name 'Deja Vu'. But by repeatedly returning to shots of the Indian farmers' historic and victorious SKM-led nationwide struggle of 2020-21, it also highlights the Indian farmers' stiff resistance to the BJP-led government-corporate nexus in India.
This powerful film, which is now in English, will come out in a dubbed Hindi version very soon with the help of Naseeruddin Shah, and then in many national languages in India. It deserves to be seen and shown far and wide.
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