By TwoCircles.net news desk
New Delhi: Delhi based independent documentary filmmaker Merajur Rahman Baruah won the 55th National Award for his documentary film ‘Shifting Prophecy.” The film was awarded Rajat Kamal for the 55th National Award in the Best Film on Social Issue category.
Mr. Baruah is an accomplished documentary filmmaker with several documentaries and awards to his credit. He won the Best Director Award at Hyderabad International Film Festival in 2008 for the same film.
“Sifting Prophecy” is about the struggles of Muslim women in Tamil Nadu. The film is woven around Sharifa Khanam who is trying to build a mosque for Muslim women.
Synopsis of the film:
The film explores the emergence of a rural Muslim women movement in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The essence of their staggering struggle engaging with the question of gender violence, linking with the issues of poverty, survival, and women’s rights thus locating Muslim women’s concerns within a larger civic and political discourse. The film delves in to the prophecy of Ms Sharifa Khanam and thousands of other village women, who believe in freedom, justice humanity and democratic principles. And they now want to control their own affairs, hence constructing the world’s first women’s mosque and also formed the first women Jamat ever to counter against the gender biases, blatant discrimination in the name of religious and patriarchal social order
About the Director:
Merajur Rahman Baruah has completed Master Degree in Sociology and dip in Mass communication from Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia and also done Film Appreciation course from Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). For last ten years he has been involved in making documentaries and television program in various capacities on plethora of issues ranging from Art and Sculptures, sexuality, conflict & mental health issues on human rights, communalism and environmental issues of concern. Pageant in Painted Scenes, Breaking Silence, Song of the Sanctuary, Beyond the Zero Line and Shifting Prophecy are some of the documentaries he has already made so far. He has received the Commonwealth vision award 2006 as commanded for his film “Beyond the Zero Line” from the Royal Commonwealth Society United Kingdom in 2006. And best director’s award at the Hyderabad International Film Festival 08 for his film “Shifting Prophecy” And Rajat Kamal for best film on social issue in the recently held 55th National Award 09 for Shifting Prophecy.
Get the movie here: http://www.synclinefilmstore.com/movies/movie_detail/250