In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a collective of indigenous artists belonging to India’s ‘ex-criminal’ De-notified Tribes and associated with Budhan Theatre, decided to produce video podcasts of the impact of the pandemic on the margins. This process was an effort to generate memory against processes of collective amnesia; and to usher indigenous communities to the digital space in a post-pandemic context, where the digital has become an essential component of our cultural and economic life. This film tells the story of the makers, who did not stop recording despite losing members of their own family along the way.

Mhara Pichchar combines storytelling with music, poetry performance and narration to bring to the fore issues and debates that are absent in mainstream media. The film traverses several strands covering the personal and artistic trajectories of the protagonists, using behind-the-scenes interviews of the creators and footage from the podcast as the narrative trope. 

When a boy in a small Himalayan town hears about a landslide that has struck the very bus route his girlfriend was supposed to take, panic sets in. Unsure of her whereabouts and fueled by wild theories, he convinces his reluctant yet well-meaning friends to drive him to the disaster site. What follows is a chaotic, yet comic road trip through winding mountain roads as the group stumbles through their amateur rescue mission. Along the way, they learn more about each other and unpredictable ways of nature.

Haq is a reflective film examining the century-old customary law, Wajib ul Urj, originally designed to protect tribal land and culture. However, this law prevents wives and daughters from inheriting ancestral property. The film calls on the community to find a solution that ensures women’s rights while safeguarding tribal land and cultural heritage.