Neros Guest Critical Analysis

In my understanding the mainstream media today is absolutely degenerated and corrupted as it does not
covering anything that is not breaking news or that is not considered glamorous enough to catch eye balls.
For this obvious reason, Neros Guests has been completely ignored by the mainstream media (both print
& electronic) and is not given its due space & visibility.
The subject itself is not new to any of us and it has become a part of our daily lives - mere statistics. It is
about the severe crisis that the country is faced with, as a result of which farmers are still committing
suicide and as many as 200,000 farmers have already paid a price by giving away their lives, over the last
decade or so. It has been written, talked and debated about in certain sections of the press; but the film is
extremely thought provoking, highly emotive, heart rending and at times is absolutely shocking and
painful.
The frustration of journalist P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, is highly infectious. He narrated
the story in an emotional way. He actually explained the message in an aggressive and clear manner. It
not only brings out the absolute failure in handling of the crisis by the respective Center and State
Governments (both BJP & Congress) but also their complete apathy & inaction towards the crisis,
government after government.
Directed by Deepa Bhatia, a noted Bollywood film editor with heavy commercial titles such as Taare
Zameen Par and My name is Khan to her credit, this one comes out as a brilliant body of work in the
script, the fluid edits without any frills and fills. Sainaths talking straight into the camera between the
shots, apparently without any pre-rehearsed lines and caution, immediately connects with the audience
through interactive viewing and a strong story line. Though would love to but rather not talk about the
title of the film that finds its origin in Roman History and Tacitus I would leave it to Sainath himself for
he alone would be able to do full justice explaining the background and the relevance of the title to the
subject.
The film is a documentary on ground report, narration of facts and situation in the rural India. It does not
talk about any solutions or remedy. Sainath believes there could be more than one way to solve the agrarian
crisis but it is the apathy and inaction towards farmers committing suicide that actually brings him to this
business.