Pushpa Rawat

'Mod' is an attempt by the filmmaker at communicating with the young men who hang out at the ‘notorious’ water tank in her neighbourhood in Pratap Vihar, Ghaziabad. The water tank is a space that is frequented by the so-called ‘no-gooders’ of the locality, a place where they play cricket, play cards, drink and smoke up. When she enters the space with her camera, the boys are curious and at the same time wary of it and her. They sometimes resist, sometimes protest, and at times, open up. As the film unfolds we get a hint of the lives the boys lead and the fragile world they create for themselves at the water tank.

Rural, adivasi women from the villages of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh critique the grand plan of development of the country. As mines and power plants appear and grow in monstrous proportions around them, many of them have been cheated of their land and compensation. Their relationship with the forest and environment has been severed, leaving them surrounded by a toxic, polluted, gutted earth. As they grapple with all this, they seek justice for themselves and their communities and share their thoughts about how a country should be.

The film's director Pushpa Rawat brings her scrutiny to bear upon her closest female friends, her ex-boyfriend, his parents and her own family through interview/conversations. She asks, and reflects herself, on uncomfortable questions about jati, choice, personal freedom, happiness and compromise. Rawat made Nirnay in collaboration with Anupama Srinivasan, a documentary filmmaker and director of the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival.