Documentary Series ‘Election Diaries 2024’ Charting The Fight For Democracy Premieres At IDSFF Kerala

The Indian elections of 2024 marked a decisive turning point for the nation’s democratic fabric. The ruling Hindu nationalist BJP yielded unmatched financial power and complete command over state institutions. Its leaders and allies forecasted a sweeping victory—one so formidable that it could remake the constitution itself in the image of a Hindu state. By the second phase of voting, the campaign’s language turned sharper, steeped in communal rhetoric and foretelling a majoritarian order. Instead of delivering an overwhelming sanction for religious nationalism, voters signalled that livelihood, welfare, education, and healthcare could not be dismissed. The outcome did not end communal politics, but it forced a fragile interlude—a pause, a flicker of reprieve within an increasingly constricted democratic space.

It is within this turbulence that Election Diaries 2024, produced by the Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) at the University of Göttingen, takes its ground. Premiering at the 17th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, taking place at Thiruvananthapuram in August 2025, this series includes nine films by varied filmmakers. The anthology crosses geographies and communities—from Hyderabad to Shillong, Tamil Nadu to West Bengal, Kerala to Bihar, Karnataka to Uttar Pradesh. Each work attempts to capture politics not as abstraction but as lived struggle, rendering an intimate portrait of India standing at the threshold of change.

Politics of Identity and Survival

In Crescent in the Saffron Sky, filmmakers Alishan Jafri and Omair Farooq turn their lens on Asaduddin Owaisi, among the most polarising Muslim leaders in India. Beyond media caricatures, the film confronts the dilemmas of identity politics in an age where Hindu nationalism leaves little room for minority voices. Can parties like AIMIM retain relevance in a democracy hostile to difference, or are they fated to fade into irrelevance?

Amit Mahanti’s Inside Outside travels to Meghalaya, where two regional parties battle over the fraught terrain of insider versus outsider. Through his own presence as both insider and outsider in Shillong, the filmmaker probes belonging, borders, and the delicate coexistence of communities—questions that resonate far beyond the North-East.

Alternative Visions of Democracy

In The Minuscule Minority, Avijit Mukul Kishore traces the evolving field of queer politics. While LGBTQ+ rights once fought primarily in courts, 2024 saw younger activists demand visibility in party manifestos and campaigns. The film captures this shift—from rights argued in legal petitions to rights declared in the arena of mass politics.

Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar’s State of Hope follows veteran Left leader T.M. Thomas Isaac in Pathanamthitta, Kerala. Known for decentralised planning and welfare-driven policies, Isaac’s campaign embodies a stubborn faith in development politics over spectacle. The film is less about a contest for votes than about a vision of democracy built on empowerment.

Greeshma Kuthar and Manju Priya K’s Our Symbol is? situates itself in Tamil Nadu, where political identity is inseparable from cultural signs. The film observes how traditions and icons are recast, appropriated, or defended in the struggle between Hindutva’s cultural project and Tamil self-respect politics. In asking “whose symbols define the state?”, it shows how imagery itself becomes a battleground of power.

The Stark Ground Realities 

The Battle Royale, directed by Lalit Vachani, follows Mahua Moitra’s campaign in Krishnanagar, West Bengal. Expelled from Parliament under allegations, Moitra fought for both survival and vindication. The film charts the theatrics of a three-cornered fight against a CPI(M)-INC candidate and a BJP-backed royal, exposing how women in politics face vendetta, hostility, and spectacle.

In Gola Dreams, Pankaj Rishi Kumar looks at small-town Uttar Pradesh, where youth politics is revealed in its contradictions. Campaign meetings, conversations, and interviews expose the anxieties and hopes of young voters and candidates alike. The film becomes a mirror to India’s largest demographic—its restless youth—whose ambitions remain caught between systemic neglect and fragile hope.

Prateek Shekhar’s Ruke Na Jo travels to Bihar’s Nalanda, where a young leader fights entrenched hierarchies with little more than grit. Against resource-heavy parties, the film becomes a record of resilience: evidence that even amid corruption, elections can still be moments of democratic struggle.

Finally, SANGAMA | Coming Together, by Sunanda Bhat, follows the citizen-led campaign ‘Eddelu Karnataka’. Rallying people to “wake up” against hate, it drew thousands of volunteers into conversations on jobs, education, and healthcare. The film is a reminder of what collective mobilisation can achieve when citizens refuse silence.

The nine films of Election Diaries 2024 seem to offer a composite portrait of India’s contested democracy—its exclusions, its battles, its solidarities, and its sheer persistence. Each film carries its own ground, its own leader, its own issue. Seen together, they map a fractured, but enduring political landscape, at a moment when India’s future hangs in uncertainty. Election Diaries 2024 promises to raise the question that haunts India still—whether democracy will be consumed by polarisation and majoritarianism, or whether the struggles of citizens, activists, and communities can keep its promise alive.