Action sans lights on camera

LUCKNOW: After watching this in-your-face documentary on power theft, LESA chief A P Singh cited a joke doing the rounds on whatsapp: ‘In India, there is a cause to celebrate every 2 hours—light aa gayi!’ The film Katiyabaaz that released last week was screened especially here on Monday for a select few, including power department officials, the director duo Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar playing host.
“We started with the idea of making a film on Kanpur, but power crisis stood out as a defining characteristic of the city and we decided to focus on it,” said Mustafa, a Kanpur native, who shifted to Europe and has been involved in film making in Vienna, Italy. The duo has earlier made a documentary on the highs and lows of the Chechnya football team.
“Yes, it is the problem of the entire state, but since one of us belongs to this industrial city, we documented the scenario there,” added Kakkar, a Ghaziabad native.
With its candid take on the cause and effect of power crisis, the film offers a good dose of entertainment too with the funny colloquial of Kanpur commoners and songs by Indian Ocean band in the background. On the prospects of a film which has been the toast of festival circuit but is not exactly box office material, Kakkar said “nobody wants to pay to watch a documentary. But, we have released it for exhibition on 50 screens across the country.” The film makes almost stars out of the commonest of common like Loha Singh, a Kanpur native who makes a living out of supplying power through ‘katiya’, an illegal connection. There is actual footage of former Kesco MD Ritu Maheshwari at work and politician Irfan Solanki playing his card.
“It’s not for us to suggest solutions to the problem, but for the policy makers instead to take the call. We have only shown the plight of the citizens who suffer endlessly power cuts up to 48 hours long, along with the predicament of power officials who take choicest abuses and even beating even though they are not entirely at fault.”
The duo said they never intended to say who’s right and who at fault. Far from it. “But, we do want it to trigger a discussion on an issue that needs to be addressed on priority,” said Mustafa. “Three lakh residents of an industrial city living without regular electric supply is no ordinary matter in this day and age,” he said.