(Credit: TIFF)

While We Watched, the documentary by talented director Vinay Shukla, is an absolute gem. The film’s world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival was received with great enthusiasm by the audience, as were the visiting director and the film’s subject.

A follow-up to another politics-themed documentary, An Insignificant Man (a chronicle of an Indian insurgency party and its leader), While We Watched examines the depths to which journalism has sunk in India by following reporter Ravish Kumar, the face of the news network NDTV, as he struggles to provide factual news reporting, including criticism of the status quo, while continually at odds with the increasingly divisive, populist media which is gathering a majority of viewers, and with slander and even threats from the powers that be, and their followers among the general public. It is an account aimed not only at India but also, and rather pointedly, at other parts of the world where this process is in its developing phase. The situation presented in Indian media surpassed the worst fears of the western world regarding openly partisan, divisive, unashamedly post-truth news reporting.

The film plunges directly into action, with Ravish Kumar on camera, discussing recent criminal arrests and the curtailing of civil rights. Kumar’s scenes alternated with more popular and affluent news networks calling him a communist. Kumar encounters fans of his news programming on the street, which express appreciation for his reliable, fact-checked news reporting in the face of what they vaguely call a “government boycott”. Kumar is calm and upbeat, but back at his station, where one storey has already been abandoned due to lost revenue, there are concerns. Viewers have become afraid of writing to the station, which is in the government’s crosshairs; NDTV staff worry that the station may be shut down if the current government is re-elected. The film gets the situation across simply and efficiently, catching key moments in the NDTV newsroom as appropriate coverage is discussed, and offering pertinent glimpses of more popular, high-budget news programming as it spirals further into hyperbole.

The camera follows Kumar and the network’s staff as they investigate newsworthy events, interview witnesses, fact-check, and prepare for the daily prime-time screening. They seem, at first, like a group of dedicated professionals reporting the news in an expected way. Perspective changes when the film offers more glimpses of their competition: the most popular TV news service in India and the direction it has taken in recent years. Announcing from an over-decorated, colourful set, the well-dressed reporters speak, rather aggressively, about the need for greater patriotism, the dangers of “anti-nationalists” and “communists” who oppose the government’s plans. The emphasis on the threat of foreigners, familiar from western news reports, is found here in the dread of Muslim influence and Pakistani incursion. There is virtually no attempt to distinguish factual reporting from nationalist diatribes, and opposition to government policies is taken as subversive and dangerous by definition. The contrast to NDTV’s approach is striking, and it is no surprise when inspired by partisan news reports, NDTV staff begin to receive angry letters and phone calls accusing them of being unpatriotic or traitors and even making threats of violence. During the premiere at TIFF, director Vinay Shukla noted that during the course of filming, while it is not apparent on-screen, Kumar had begun travelling with a bodyguard.

While the popular Indian media grows increasingly emotional, hyper-patriotic, and less reality-based, the actions of Ravish Kumar and the NDTV crew take the form of a heroic underdog story. The station takes a firm but never antagonistic approach to current events, trying to sustain its resolve to provide factual information to the public and rise above the chaos that has overtaken most of the nation’s news media. Their work becomes more complex and discouraging as staff, faced with decreasing income and threats and tighter news reporting controls, begin to resign from NDTV.

The film does an excellent job of putting things in perspective, allowing the depressing truth to mix with occasional light spots. When NDTV chooses to travel to less affluent areas not covered by the popular news media and discuss with local residents their own concerns – which the larger news stations routinely ignore – the story develops. This tactic uncovers facts which often contradict misleading reports from pro-government news and brings to light the falsehoods and cover-ups regarding government policy. Following the 2019 election, a depressing moment for NDTV, the film concludes on a relatively upbeat note, with Ravish Kumar winning a prestigious journalism award (he has won several), an event publicised internationally. The final shot, appropriately, is of Kumar returning to the station after his win and settling down to take routine phone calls, continuing with the daily business of journalism despite everything.

Following the TIFF premiere, director Vinay Shukla and several crew members took audience questions. Asked how he came to choose his subject matter, Shukla said that he had found watching the news in India “increasingly unsatisfying” and found many acquaintances avoiding it altogether. He chose NDTV journalists because they seemed to feel the same way and because he wanted to cover someone who disagreed with the current approach to news. He also preferred someone who broadcast in Hindi, India’s most widely spoken language. His sound director noted that the filmmaker had wanted the film to be about Ravish Kumar, not about politics, in order to give the audience someone they could emotionally connect with. This goal was certainly achieved, thanks to the sensitively filmed moments of Kumar with his wife and young daughter and working closely with his staff. Or of Kumar at public speaking engagements where he was heckled and insulted, as well as one talk given to university students, where he interacted brilliantly and insightfully with the audience. The filming and post-production work took years, the editing in particular done so painstakingly that, as one audience member commented, it looked almost like a staged re-enactment due to the careful selection of film moments; but the story is all too real.

Asked to discuss the parallels between Indian news reporting and the increasingly partisan and unreliable news agencies in the west, Shukla sidestepped a bit. The important thing, he suggested, is that news media have “checks and balances” in place, “which India, currently, does not.” He went on to speak fervently about the disaster that can be brought about by disinformation – on which subject his documentary speaks for itself. Cinematographer Amaan Shaikh, also present at the film’s premiere, was blunt and pessimistic, stating, “journalism is an endangered species.” Director Shukla, however, is more hopeful. He suggests pulling back from accusations and focusing on the actual work of journalism, making sure that it is not set up to allow, much less encourage propaganda. To that end, he offers a genuinely frightening cautionary tale.