Sunil Janah’s Photo Journalism: Weaving Everyday Aaesthetics Through Politics
– Urvi Chheda

Old man: (While sipping curry) this lack of rice and the way the price of rice is increasing like this. do you know why this is happening?

Gangacharan: Because of the war, right?
Old man: Yes because of the war for sure. But what is the real reason?

Gangacharan: What is the real reason?!
Old man: (smoking hukkah) the real reason is that the Japanese have taken over Burma.

Gangacharan: and, singapore?

O
ld man: they have singapore anyway. But they have taken Burma, too. the same Burma where we get our rice from. It was inexpensive and coarse rice. It has stopped coming now.

Gangacharan: I see.
Old man: and then, there is the government

Gangacharan: Government?
O
ld man: government is taking the inexpensive rice.

Gangacharan: Where?

In microcosmic Satyajit Ray’s film narratives, technically, the political precipitates through everyday aesthetics. As prey to the poverty prevalent in Indian villages, Harihar, in the classic Pather Panchali (1955), has to leave the hamlet for livelihood, returning to the depressing news of his daughter, Durga’s untimely death. Durga dies because of a lack of medical attention. Nevertheless, the domestic warmth and everyday sustenance of familial essentials overpower the extant social prejudices in the movie.