2024 witnessed farmers’ movements across the world.

In India too, the farmers organised their march to Delhi with MSP as their primary demand, early this month.

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The first major farmers’ movement took place in the national capital in 2021.

Against the backdrop of the global rise of farmers’ movements comes the documentary Deje Vu, filming of the documentary began in 2021, barely two months after launch of the farm laws in India.

The director of the documentary is Bedabrata Pain. He is an ex-NASA scientist. Pain is a technology consultant for the prime camera maker RED Digital Cinema. He received his B Tech degree from IIT Kharagpur in 1986 and his PhD from Columbia University, USA. He is a recipient of NASA inventors award and IIT distinguished alumnus award.

Pain had directed Chittagong in 2012 and won the Golden Lotus in the Indian National awards. Pain is assisted by Rajashik Tarafdar, a student pursuing his PhD in physics at CalTech University, USA on quantum mechanical descriptions of gravitational waves. Shristy Agarwal is also a student pursuing PhD in physics and leads a startup on quantum sensors.

The documentary will be shown at Sujata Sadan on 28 December at 6 pm.

The farm laws were to promote market reforms in agriculture. The farmers raised their voice and organised movements, one of the biggest in recent times. It may be recalled that four decades ago, similar market reforms were made in the USA. How did the reforms turn out in America? Who has benefited? Who lost out, the farmers, the consumers or the corporates?

Similarly, the questions are equally applicable to the Indian context. Deja Vu is the confluence where the past meets the future.

Pain and three others went on a 10,000 km journey through the farmlands of the American midwest. This journey resulted in the documentary.

The documentary starts with the farmers’ agitation outside Delhi, where thousands of farmers gathered braving all odds to press for their demands. It went on for several days.