Vivekacha Awaaj - (Voice of Reason) – Social Awareness Documentary
Know the creator
Greetings! I am Suraj Kolhapure, a young designer and an ardent fan of Film as a medium to reach the masses. I am an alumnus of the prestigious JJ Institute of Applied Arts and have been involved in making 3 documentaries in the past. Vivekacha Awaaj (The Voice of Reason) will be my first foray into the realm of direction.
My vision for the documentary is to add more strength to the voice of reason. In my opinion, a documentary allows you to delve deeper into any subject – no matter what the subject and allows you to give a very ‘Real’ perspective of it.
I’ve chosen to crowd fund the project so as to make this film truly for and by the people. I aim to shed light on to a subject that deeply concerns humanity, civilization and logical reason.
Synopsis
Since the birth of civilization, the ruling class and the religious order of every tribe, state or country has worked in unison. A nexus of sorts that resulted in a profitable system which helped keep the masses under a firm hand and things working in favor of the top order. The hierarchy of caste, creed, race made it easier to keep the dominance of this Machine from fading away.
However, a blanket of darkness can always be disturbed even by a small ray of light. Time and again, such a person voicing reason has emerged and spoken against the Machine. These men and women showed society the values of brotherhood, truth and justice.
399 BC saw the Greek philosopher Socrates rise up against the system and promote progressive thinking; an act for which he was sentenced to consuming poison as punishment by the same system.
Although Socrates never stepped back from his beliefs and killed himself with the poison, this punishment by the system is nothing but the murder of reason and the person. This method of elimination has been used by the Machine to murder many a great thinker and progressive people. India as a nation has followed the same devious method.
The Charvaks from 600 BC India and Saint Tukaram from 1608 BC Maharashtra were wiped out by the ruling class because they shunned the vedic traditions and taught the masses progressive ways. In spite of India’s progress in Science, Literature and Technology today, the social situation is just as bleak as it was. Casteism, racism and religious hatred are prevalent and any voice against the same has been violently shut down. A glimpse on the past few years should explain.
The years from 2013 to 2017 saw the murders of 3 popular rationalists:
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar was killed on 20th August, 2013 in Pune. Dr. Dabholkar spoke against superstition and witchcraft that was used to dupe common people.
16th of February saw the cold blooded killing of Adv. Govind Pansare in Kolhapur. He was a communist who worked for the betterment of Dalits, labourers and also tried to eradicate the animosity in Hindu and Muslims.
On the 30th of August, M.M. Kalburgi was murdered in Dharwad. A staunch critic of the Hindu religious establishment, Mr. Kalburgi chose to call himself a Dravidian rather than aligning himself with any caste or religion.
The need of the hour
These 3 dared challenge the Machine’s control, but were cruelly taken down.
Vivekacha Awaaj (Voice of reason) essentially means doing everything after questioning the reason behind it and whether or not your own intelligence agrees with it. The system has always aimed to gag this voice, but fails to realize that a thinker can be murdered, but not the thought. Moreover, their thoughts are spread out far and wide even after their deaths.
Through this documentary, I aim to expose the people to the necessity, the deeds and the killings of these thinkers. I also intend to question why the government and the police haven’t been successful in getting to the root of these crimes.
Humanity needs the voice, a voice of reason. So we truly emerge as a civilized society. Help me in meeting this aim. Let’s make sure that the voice only gets louder.
What are you pledging for?
0% - the profit that I’d be taking from the collections. All of the funds will be used to produce the documentary and to procure a good team and equipment.
Travel:
A large part of the budget would be used to travel across the various villages, towns in the interiors of Maharashtra to get a deeper understanding of the subject. This is also where I’d get the chance to interview some personalities and people directly involved with the subject.
Equipment:
As I do not own any shooting equipment the second priority would be to rent good quality shooting equipment (Lapel mics, recorders, lenses, camera) and more importantly to hire a team that will operate the gear.
Post Production:
Editing the final footage and polishing the recordings at a good studio to make sure the information is delivered in a proper way would be the next important expense.
Duration
The first steps for the creation of this documentary like research, paperwork are already underway. Once the equipment and travel arrangements are in place, the documentary would be ready by mid-2018. More so, regular updates about the progress of the documentary will be shared by us on our social media handles.
What do you get?
Every donation, small or big is very valuable to me and hence I will try my best to honor every pledge with a giveaway:
1 USD – Each dollar a adds strength! - A thank you mail
5 USD – You’ve voiced out your concern! - Name in “thank you” credits
100 USD – That helped with our one way travel! - CD + Poster
200 USD – Wear your voice out loud – Tee (with poster printed) + Poster + “Thank you” credits
300 USD – See it first and rise up – Pre-release watch + Tee (with poster printed) + Poster + “Thank you” credits
500 USD – You’re an integral part of it – Associate Producer credits + Pre-release watch + Tee (with poster printed) + Poster + “Thank you” credits
1000 USD – You’re leading the awareness! - Producer credits + Pre-release watch + Tee (with poster printed) + Poster + “Thank you” credits