August 2007 Edition
Ashim Jain
Bangalore
THE job of a good cartoon is to make you stop,
smile and think. KP Sasi, 49, can make you go a
step further and act. Cartoonist, 
filmmaker
and activist, Sasi, 49, believes that film is a powerful
medium of social change. He is the soul
behind Visual Search, a group in Bangalore that
makes such films. “If media fully understood the relevance of
social films in promoting a positive society, it
would make a lot of difference,” says Sasi, humble,
but confident. He has made over 20 documentaries,
three feature films, several short films and music videos on social issues.
An award winning filmmaker, his passion for
social activism began during his college days in
1977 after he witnessed the infamous Emergency
years of Indira Gandhi.
In fact, his transformation from being a political
cartoonist in 1981 to a spirited activist?filmmaker
took place after he saw two films – ‘Prisoners of
Conscience’ by Anand Patwardhan, and ‘An
Indian Story’ by Tapan Bose.
His own experience
lends credibility to his belief that ‘activist-films’ are a powerful medium of
social change.
He says that purist journalists and filmmakers who believe that the media or
films must stay neutral, forget that as an author or artist, one has the right and
duty to take a stance depending on what you believe in or empathise with. He
says
that the quiescence of the press on social issues is largely due to ‘capital’
(industrialists) and the ‘state’ (government)
Some of the more interesting films produced by him are ‘Development at
Gunpoint’, ‘America America’, ‘Redefining Peace’,
and ‘The Source of Life for Sale.’ ‘America America’ is a four-minute musical
video on caustic American foreign policy that
advocates war and uses bombs to destroy nations
to counter terrorism and impose its own will on
the world. Sasi narrates how an American student
in Bangalore who watched this film had tears
rolling down her cheeks.
As the girl, who belonged to a family of Bush-supporters, felt very guilty, Sasi consoled her, saying that he feels much more one with Americans who oppose the war than with even Indians who are pro-war. Sasi takes up filmmaking on a broad range of issues from fisher-people’s struggle against new legislation that tramples on their rights, to communalism to indiscriminate industrialisation that is hurting the environment. A diehard achiever, he doesn’t mind raising funds by begging or borrowing as he did for his very first film ‘Insight’ in 1982 by collecting just Rs 0.10 to Rs 1 from students.
visualsearch1@gmail.com or info@visualsearch.org www.visualsearch.org
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