film

“While We Watched” is an urgent interrogation of the state of journalism today. And yet, while important, it’s unclear what this has to say that hasn’t already been said.

Kumar’s humility and eloquence ensure that the film never slips into hagiography — instead, it lingers as a lament and a battle cry.

Speaking truth to power has gone dangerously out of style. Such is the dark message of While We Watched, the kinetic and bleakly effective new documentary about media and democracy from Vinay Shukla.

At all events, it’s a valuable view on how easy it is for the news media to become sycophantic mouthpieces for the right.

A gripping, moving, sometimes frustrating portrait of a man consumed by a need to speak up, even as he wonders if anybody’s watching.

Like a sister film to Vera Krichevskaya’s F@ck This Job (about media control in Putin’s Russia), this is a gripping account of TV news under fire in Modi’s India.

This is tense, essential film-making that argues for the importance of serious, balanced journalism in today’s world of factional infotainment, while also showing the cost to those who stand against the tide.

Increasingly challenged and harassed, Kumar and his colleagues continue to fight the good fight. It’s harrowing to watch.

While We Watched, Vinay Shukla's profile of Ravish Kumar (and a country in crisis) works as a dystopian thriller, a character study about loneliness, and also a newsroom drama. But more than anything else, it's the best war movie of the year.

The film’s account is believable and worth seeing, but quite impressionistic. Despite its regard for journalistic rigour, Vinay Shukla’s movie is a bit short on facts and figures to provide context.