Director: Minnie Vaid
India / 2011 / 47min
This is a film about an ordinary man who led an quietly extraordinary life as a village doctor helping poor tribals in a truly backward state—Chhattisgarh—for almost 30 years till he crossed paths with the state by exposing human rights abuses in even more remote and dangerous areas. He paid a heavy price for his courageous choices, for daring to speak out, the state put him in jail for 2 years under charges of sedition and being a ‘fake doctor.'
He was accused of being in league with the Naxalites—a Maoist-Leninist group that believes in violence to achieve justice—helping them in their agenda of destabilizing the country. After a trial that proved no concrete evidence against the highly qualified paediatrician, the sessions court in the state found him guilty of sedition, based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced him to life imprisonment. This judgement was pronounced in December 2010. Meanwhile human rights activists in India and internationally, Amnesty International, Nobel Laureates, thousands of supporters across the world launched a campaign protesting for his freedom.
About the Director: Minnie Vaid wears many hats. She has been a print journalist, starting her career with the Times of India and Illustrated Weekly, moving on to video journalism with India Today's Newstrack, switching to documentary programmes with Business India television, anchoring and producing ROOTS, an award-winning programme on rural India.
She has also been executive producer and creative producer at prestigious companies like Star plus and Mahindras but her heart remains firmly true to documentaries and she follows that passion. Whether it is whistle-blower Satyendra Dubey or doctor-activist Binayak Sen or women self-help groups or indigenous forest conservation, Minnie documents the stories for the world to see. This January her first book A doctor to defend : the Binayak Sen story was launched by Prof Amartya Sen in India. She is currently working on her second book on rights activist Irom Sharmila.
This is a film about an ordinary man who led an quietly extraordinary life as a village doctor helping poor tribals in a truly backward state—Chhattisgarh—for almost 30 years till he crossed paths with the state by exposing human rights abuses in even more remote and dangerous areas.
He paid a heavy price for his courageous choices, for daring to speak out, the state put him in jail for 2 years under charges of sedition and being a ‘fake doctor’.
He was accused of being in league with the Naxalites—a Maoist-Leninist group that believes in violence to achieve justice—helping them in their agenda of destabilizing the country.
After a trial that proved no concrete evidence against the highly qualified paediatrician, the sessions court in the state found him guilty of sedition, based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced him to life imprisonment. This judgement was pronounced in December 2010.
Meanwhile human rights activists in India and internationally, Amnesty International, Nobel Laureates, thousands of supporters across the world launched a campaign protesting for his freedom.