‘While We Watched’ Review: India on the Brink – The New York Times

Within the opening moments of Vinay Shukla’s documentary “Whereas We Watched,” its topic, the veteran Indian information anchor Ravish Kumar, stands in a partly demolished constructing and wonders, “When you end up on their lonesome, whom do you hearken to?”

For one of many few high-profile journalists in India who has dared to talk reality to energy — undeterred by falling scores, dying threats and a authorities more and more hostile to a free press — that is nothing lower than an existential disaster. What, certainly, does a journalist dedicated to being the voice of the folks do when it appears he may be speaking simply to himself?

“Whereas We Watched” follows Kumar at his job at NDTV, an influential cable TV station, from 2018 to 2021 (a yr earlier than it was acquired in a hostile takeover by a billionaire). The documentary is much less an inspiring story than a sobering wake-up name. The digicam stays near Kumar’s face, which wears a crumpled look of resignation as he and his underfunded workforce try to reaffirm democratic beliefs amid a storm of rabble-rousing rhetoric from competing media retailers that demonize dissent and stoke Islamophobia. The film unfolds like an episode of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” with brisk edits immersing us within the high-stakes, fast-paced and low-reward realm of unbiased information.

Kumar is the voice of purpose to many Indians; to see him so weak is unsettling, although it makes his persistence all of the extra spectacular. Shukla is just a little too enamored of his topic, in order that political and bureaucratic particulars fade right into a considerably monotonous, stylized story of man towards world. But Kumar’s humility and eloquence make sure that the movie by no means slips into hagiography — as an alternative, it lingers as a lament and a battle cry.

Whereas We Watched
Not rated. In English and Hindi, with subtitles. Working time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters.