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Journalism of Courage
This is a husband-wife team that works with children, for children. We are talking about G.S. Chani and Harleen Kohli, city-based theatre activists and filmmakers.
This very zealous team is now busy making a series of video programmes for the Khalsa tercentenary celebrations, that will have quot;nothing to do with the ritualistic or political scenequot; of Sikhism. The projects have been titled quot;Sarbat da Bhala,quot; a TV series on the Sikh way of life, quot;Doosro Na Bhed Koie,quot; a TV programme on Sikhs as a synthesis of Indian culture, and the very aptly named quot;Anhad Naad,quot; a TV series on the music and the quot;raagasquot; of Guru Granth Sahib. Says G.S. Chani, quot;We are exploring Khalsa8230; the ethics of Sikhism8230; its Sarbat da Bhala8217; philosophy,quot; and Harleen contends that making programmes on Sikhism is a revelation for her on what the religion exactly means. For she had quot;rejectedquot; Sikhism, fed up of the hypocrisy surrounding the Gurus8217; teachings.
Both are, in a way, now seeing Sikhism with new eyes, quot;leaning towards spirituality,quot; as Harleen puts it, though lesser-spiritual topics like getting funding for these projects continue demanding their attention.
Harleen Minnu to friends, has had her fingers in many pies. This commerce graduate learnt film appreciation at FTII, Pune, studied law, became a full flegded Communist Party member and drifted towards theatre and filmmaking somewhere in the very happenning 70s and early 80s. This was after joining quot;Shamsheer,quot; a group working towards women8217;s empowermemt, and founding quot;Kafla,quot; an organisation that toured Punjab for 7 years, popularising the book culture among children.
Life for Fulbright scholar Chani, as he is popularly known, was a joyride, peppered with religious leanings, till he decided to join the Gurmat College, Patiala in 1970, wanting to become a Giani religious preacher. He quit after one year only, got a degree in Science instead and then went on to learn drama at Punjab University and in National School of Drama.
Theatre fuels the fire of these two very happy-looking people, a passion that has engulfed their families, apart from providing joy to many children in Chandigarh, in the region and abroad, too. They founded the Centre for Education and Voluntary Action CEVA in 1989, which involved innovations in Children8217;s theatre, Street theatre, Community theatre and Environmental theatre and is still going strong.
But filmmaking is what brings in the bread, butter and jam for Chani and Harleen. Chani has made about 30 documentaries and tele-films, the most famous one being perhaps, quot;Tuttu,quot; the love story of a mentally-challenged boy, played by Raghubir Yadav. Tuttu won the North India Film Association NIFA Award for Excellence in 1989 and was shown on television. quot;Doosra Kadam,quot; a telefim on women8217;s issues was also geratly acclaimed and was thrice shown on the national hook up of DD.
His film quot;Gujjarsquot; went to the Copenhagen, Mumbai and Trivandrum film festivals, quot;Ghuti Hawaon Ka Sannata,quot; a film on sexual harassment of women participated in the competition section of International Film Festival, MIFF in Mumbai, in 1996, as did quot;Hola Mohallaquot; last year. Harleen has lent her writing, direction and production abilites to about 15 TV programmes, documentaries, telefilms and street plays and swears to have enjoyed every bit of it.
Both also love sharing their globe-trotting experiences. While Chani has given lecdems and audio-visual presentations at Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT, School of Communication at Washington DC and in universities of Toronto, Boston and Michigan, Harleen has been all over Europe. Both also are artistes-in-residence at Shrewsbury, England, where they conducted worshops for children. Collages made by English children they worked with, dot their room. Its been a long way from the carefree childhood and early adulthood for the two, very much in love people. May they continue bringing cheer in the lives of children through theatre for years to come.
