Comedian Kunal Kamra putting Vinay Shukla's documentary 'While We Watched' on his YouTube channel is not incidental. It is the same infrastructure that journalist Ravish Kumar now operates from. The same post-institutional space that honest expression in India has been slowly compressed into.
About The Author
Shefali Khan is a Delhi-based documentary filmmaker, writer, and media professional who holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia.
Aligarh (2016) asked simple questions that still feel uncomfortable: Who is entitled to privacy without suspicion? Who is allowed desire without becoming spectacle? The film does not announce. It mourns. And that is perhaps why it endures.
2016 wasn’t a golden age. It had blind spots, compromises and safe, formulaic films. Yet, in 2026, as the industry becomes more risk-averse, it’s hard not to look back at that year with a pang of longing.
‘Dhobi Ghat’ mirrors the rhythm of the city itself, where lives intersect, diverge and move on, leaving only fragments of intimacy behind.
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