Since 24 March, India has been under the biggest lockdown anywhere in the world. The past nine weeks saw streets, silent villages, shuttered shops, factories and schools, offices and malls all shut down in response to an invisible threat. The effects to our lives were massive but have been largely missed by Indians as they were captive inside their homes.
In the times to come when we look back we must as a nation be able to know and understand how their the nation of 1.3 billion came to a complete halt, in the face of an unprecedented pandemic in the modern era.
While all Indians stayed in lockdown, filmmaker Bharatbala and a team of 117, comprising of about 15 film crews, set out to capture the unseen visuals of our nationwide lockdown.
The result is Uthenge Hum
(We Will Rise), a four-minute film that captures the nation in lockdown.
The crews filmed the lockdown across 14 states, covering thousands of kilometres, to document this exceptional time in human history. The film spans the extents of the country, from Kashmir to Kerala, Gujarat to Assam, Lucknow to Spiti, Dharavi in Mumbai to the Red Fort in the national capital.