Prisoner No. 626710 is Present (Kaidi No. 626710 Haazir Hai)

(60 min; India/Germany; 2024); In Hindi and English, with English subtitles
A film by Lalit Vachani

LOGLINE:

Prisoner No. 626710 waits interminably for a bail hearing in court…
Meanwhile, two friends who await his release reminisce and discuss the events and the circumstances that led to his arrest.

SYNOPSIS:

On September 13, 2020, Umar Khalid, a charismatic student leader who recently finished his PhD at India’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, was arrested under the draconian UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) – a law that designates individuals as terrorists and allows the Indian state to imprison people without due process.

His crime? As an Indian Muslim, he had dared to protest against the new citizenship law that the Indian state was trying to impose on its people.

Using found footage of his past speeches along with a forensic analysis of how he was framed by the right-wing, Hindu nationalist media, Umar Khalid’s close friends Banojyotsna Lahiri and Shuddhabrata Sengupta reconstruct the chronology of events that led to his tragic imprisonment.

It has been over 1,400 days since Umar Khalid was arrested. He and his friends still await a fair hearing in court.

CREDITS:

With the participation of Banojyotsna Lahiri and Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Camera: Amit Mahanti
Location sound and Audio post-production: Lohit Bhalla
Editing: Rikhav Desai
Additional camera and editing: Lalit Vachani
Archival Research: Alishan Jafri, Niyati Sharma, Atul Anand
Color Grade: Stefan Engelkamp
Video post-production: Concept AV, Berlin
Produced by Srirupa Roy and Lalit Vachani

Directed by Lalit Vachani
A Wide Eye Film, 2024

A CeMIS and ICAS:MP co-production

World premiere at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK); Trivandrum, July 29th, 2024.

Official Selection, Long Documentary Competition

Official Selection: International Documentary Film Festival, Bhubaneswar, September 27, 2024

Official Selection: Documentary competition, SiGNS at Tirur in Kerala, October 2024

Winner, Cinema of Resistance award, SiGNS 2024

 

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