Independent Films, Documentary, Social & Corporate Responsibility
Occam's Razor
by spirit
On June 15, 2004, a nineteen-year-old college going girl from suburban Mumbra (60 km from Bombay) was shot dead by the Gujarat Police. The charge leveled at her (till date, without substantiating it by enough convincing proofs), was that she was part of a terrorist group who was out on a mission to assassinate the Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi.
Based on the principle of Occam's Razor ("If you have two theories which both explain the observed facts, then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along"), the film examines the possible versions and raises questions about the manner in which 'encounter killings' are carried out in the country.
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Poster
Details
Language: Hindi
Year of production: 2005
Length: 23 min 32 sec
Country: India
Directors:
Priti Chandriani
Producers:
Pace Productions
Film Festivals:
5th Kara Festival 2005
IDPA Awards Mumbai 2006
Festival film du Strasbourg 2006
Bollywod & Beyond Stuttgart 2006
Documentary & Fiction film festival of Hollywood 2006 ( Special Mention by Jury)
4th Dallas South Asian Festival 2006
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Film reviews for Occam's Razor
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spirit
Just a few thoughts on how this film came about
Terrorism today is a huge issue and all of us want a way to eliminate it. Yet, the manner in which it is dealt sometimes makes one wonder whether this is a way to eliminate it or to propagate it! “Encounter Killings”, for example, the way it is conducted in this part of the world (the Indian subcontinent) is extremely high-handed and very often, it is like, because the police is empowered to shoot lawfully, they can kill whoever they want --without any need to prove the person guilty, something that goes completely against the very basics of human rights of the living fraternity.
When I read the newspapers about this a college girl brutally killed in a police “encounter”, when they could easily have arrested her on half a dozen occasions and initiated a trial if she was a suspect, I felt very disturbed. The question no longer was whether she was a terrorist or not. The issue was could the police kill someone on mere suspicion.
She was the only breadwinner of the family after they had lost her father and she was doing a commendable job of studying in the college and supporting a family of seven by taking private tuitions.
Of course, when we investigated and started uncovering facts layer by layer, all wasn’t so innocent. Yet, that she was a terrorist remains unproven and the police department who need to prove that she was one is Scot-free. And that is the reason we called it Occam’s Razor (“ If you have two theories which both explain the observed facts, then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along”), leaving it for the audience to decide whether she was guilty or not and at the same time taking a stance against “encounter killings” of this kind by the police.
Priti Chandriani
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francesco
With today tensions this documentary is a very important piece of the puzzle.
The issue is delicate and well presented.
Priti has a history on dealing with women and their role in the Indian society, this is a very hard topic but handled very well.
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