The Death Of Us review: Vani Subramanian's documentary questions the effects of capital punishment

The debate on the effectiveness of and necessity for capital punishment predates Independence. In 1931, a few months before Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged to death in Lahore central jail, Babu Gaya Prasad introduced a bill in the central legislative assembly to abolish the death penalty.

The motion was denied.

Dr BR Ambedkar, widely acknowledged as the father of India's Constitution, also advocated abolition of capital punishment. Ambedkar noted, "This country by and large believes in the principle of non-violence… and although people may not be following it in actual practice, they certainly adhere to [it] as a moral mandate… The proper thing… to do is to abolish the death sentence altogether.”

Vani Subramanian's documentary The Death Of Us is an attempt to carry this debate forward by raising concerns and questions that are often ignored during candlelight marches and in pleas for justice that demand capital punishment for the accused.

The film looks at six case studies and presents different perspectives on the injustice and the futility of capital punishment.

K Thiagarajan, inspired by Naxalism, believed in the movement for the 'annihilation of class enemies'. He murdered an upper-caste man known for committing atrocities against Dalits and women. Thiagarajan was awarded capital punishment for the crime but was later acquitted.

S Chalapathi Rao, who planned to rob a commuter bus in Andhra Pradesh out of sheer desperation brought on by poverty, accidentally ended up killing 20 passengers. He remains on death row for a crime he did not intend to commit.

SAR Geelani, former lecturer at the Delhi University, was fasely accused of being part of the conspiracy to attack Parliament in 2001, made to confess under torture, and then sentenced to death. He was later exonerated by the Delhi high court for lack of evidence. 

K Prasath, a fisherman from Tamil Nadu, was falsely accused of smuggling drugs in Sri Lankan waters by the island's government. He was awarded the death penalty there, to be freed only after the intervention of India's and Tamil Nadu's governments.

Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged to death in Kolkata in 2004 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl in 1990. Though the public and the media were against his clemency pleas, social worker Probal Chaudhuri claims the evidences against him held no factual ground.

The last case study the documentary presents is that of Nathuram Godse and the view of the Gandhi family on his execution.

Vani, through different voices (including those of actress-filmmaker Aparna Sen and Mahatma Gandhi's granddaughter Ela Gandhi) argues that capital punishment brings about no change in the rate of crimes. Hanging a rapist today does not mean there will be fewer rapists in future.

The film also argues that the judiciary should consider the background of the accused before deciding on the sentence.

The Death Of Us provides a complete perspective on the ills of capital punishment but abstains from presenting the other side of the coin. The filmmaker has only picked cases that viewers can sympathize with — the falsely accused and those who have accepted their mistake and are now leading a peaceful life.

Poems that Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote when he himself was in prison are very adeptly interspersed in the narrative. While romanticizing the idea of incarceration, the poems question if prison bars and walls can really curb a man's freedom, his humanity and his hope.

Vani Subramanian questions capital punishment by raising pertinent points of under-representation of the poor and the possibility of error, among others. The film, perhaps, could have also included the other side of the debate and let the viewers decide.

The Death Of Us is the closing film at the Open Frame Film Festival, held from 10-18 September at the India International Centre, New Delhi.