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Journalism of Courage
Filmmaker Ajay Noronha had got used to not having a father since he was a little boy. He died when I was six and,after a point,I didnt miss him any more, says the 44-year-old. This changed in 1998 when he decided to marry a girl from outside his community and his mother,Marie Noronha,saw red. As he began to reason with his mother,Ajay began to wonder what if his dad had been around? Would he have taken my side? says Ajay. The questions triggered a search for the missing link in his life and resulted in not only Noronha finding his father but also making a film called A Picture of You. It was screened at the India International Centre recently.
The 70-minute-long film travels down memory lane as Ajay’s family,immediate and extended,talk about the Joseph Noronha they knew. As they share anecdotes about Josephs love for Maths,his silent courtship with Marie,his life in Nagpur and his move to Mumbai in the late-60s,where he lived in a one-room apartment,fragments of an image begin to come together. The film took 10 years to make. I started editing three years ago but it was quite hard and I stopped within a month. To make a film,you need a certain distance but here,I was confronting my own self, he says. For instance,he found it difficult to accept that his father used to drink. Last year,I felt more ready to start editing the film, he says.
Ajay,a veteran of television shows such as Kaun Banega Crorepati,and documentaries such as Q2P and Bombay Eunuch,converts a personal story into a universal one. Apart from covering larger themes such as memory and photographs,family bonds and feuds,and the idea of home,the film evokes a simple question Wouldnt you like to know your parent better?
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