Docu draws parallels between American farmers’ plight and Indian protests

KOLKATA: After more than 13 years since his National Award-winning film Chittagong (2012), scientist-turned-filmmaker Bedabrata Pain is back with a powerful documentary, ‘Deja vu’. The film, where Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty is one of the producers, the film takes viewers on a 10,000-kilometer journey across America’s farming belt, uncovering the untold stories of small farmers struggling against the growing corporatization of agriculture.

Set against the backdrop of global farmers’ movements, ‘Déjà vu’ draws striking parallels between the plight of American farmers over the past four decades and the farmer protests in India.

“Deja Vu is about the farmer crisis, but it focuses on America,” said Pain.

“What American farmers went through 40 years ago is exactly what Indian farmers are being told today.

That’s the deja vu. American farmers were also promised higher incomes and prosperity through agricultural reforms. Every farmer there has heard these same lines from their government,” he added. The documentary was screened at the 31st Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) under the special screening section.

The idea for the film came naturally to Pain. With two young collaborators, Sristy Agrawal and Rajashik Tarafder, both physicists, he travelled through America’s vast farmlands, capturing real stories of resistance and survival. In a thoughtful move, Pain is also taking the film directly to the grassroots. The Hindi version, dubbed by veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, is being screened across rural India through farmer groups and unions. The English version, narrated by Ali Fazal, is aimed at global audiences on OTT platforms. “Many urban Americans don’t even know what happened to their own farmers. This film is for them as much as it is for us,” Pain explained.

Born in Kolkata, Pain studied at South Point High School, graduated from IIT Kharagpur, and completed his PhD from Columbia University. A former senior research scientist at NASA, he was also part of the team that invented the CMOS image sensor. “I was a scientist for a long time, but creativity was always a part of me, through music, painting, and stories. Eventually, I just had to follow that urge and make films,” he said.