In the Name of God

Anand Patwardhan's 1992 Indian documentary records the campaign to build a temple on the site of the mosque in Ayodhya. The camera enters the organisation's rallies and speaks with volunteers and with those who oppose them. The method is to let people talk. Patwardhan puts questions to the campaign's spokesmen and gives their answers uncut; people of different views living in the same area also enter the record. The argument is that the campaign is a political calculation rather than a religious one. A few months after the film was finished the mosque was demolished and violence followed across the country; the documentary has since been treated as a record of the moment just before. Broadcasting it on television became possible only after a long legal fight. Who it's for: those who follow Indian politics and investigative documentary. Who it's not for: viewers expecting neutral reporting; the film takes an open position and states its case from the start.