Ankhon Dekhi - 2014

Story

Raje Bauji is a man in his late fifties, living out a dreary but eventful life in a small house in old Delhi- where he lives with his extended family.

A random incident is going to change his life in a dramatic way- though he does not realize at the moment. Bauji?s daughter has been seeing a boy of ill repute. When that fact is revealed to the family, after much deliberation they decide to do the obvious- lock up the girl and go beat the willful boy.

But things don?t quite turn out the way they were supposed to - and Bauji has an epiphany. He takes a tough call- He decides that he would never believe what he has not learnt through his own experience. The only truth for him would be the truth of his life, the truth that has passed through the verifier of his senses.

He takes on that difficult journey, where he would be called a mad man, a saint- or most often, just a fool. All of it, but he is steadfast on his path.

It starts with simple things- he cannot be sure who the prime minister of India is; he is not sure whether it is Sunday today; he is not sure if the earth is round- because when he sees it, it seems flat and his own experience tells him that if he walked on a round spherical ball, he would fall.

What he can be sure of, is the fact that it is day right now, and that will be followed by night. That he knows - that is the truth of his lived experience. His relatives of course think of this as mid life crisis. His wife takes it on as another challenge. His boss is less forgiving- Bauji loses his job. But he gains a band of loyal followers, who came initially to mock him but found some substance in what he says- and are now his loyal students. Meanwhile, Rishi- Bauji?s younger brother moves out of the house with his family. This shocks
Bauji and he falls ill. Being told by his wife that his real disease is that he talks too much- he decides to not talk. Giving up words, he finds himself better connected to things, to feelings. There is no fixed path though; Bauji keeps retracting, not ashamed to go back a step to take two steps in a new direction- though at all times keeping to the spirit of his decision. It is a funny old journey of this man, this old fool- who is both Lear and the fool..