A long time ago, India went through an “interesting” time to say the least. From June 26, 1975 through March 21, 1977, democracy was suspended in India allowing Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to rule by decree. It became known as the “emergency era” in India. During that time, a lot of political activists and members of the opposition party were arrested without trial. Eventually members of the opposition party started voluntarily going to jail because they were promised a monthly pension if their party successful overthrew Gandhi’s government.

This is the setting and premise behind Vinay Shukla’s short film “Raag Sarkari”, which was shown at the South Asian International Film Festival Thursday night. The movie is one of four films competing as part of the HBO short film competition at the festival. The story is centered around a simple prison warden (Alok Ulfat) who is attempting to deal with the potential escape of some his inmates. But as much as he is concerned with avoiding the embarrassment of a prison escape, he his just as concerned with the music of one of his inmates. The prisoner is a music teacher who performs everyday. The warden, as it turns out, is a huge music lover. He intently listens to what the teacher plays everyday at 5:30 p.m. but fails to correctly identify any of the songs.

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I wasn’t alive in the 1970’s during the emergency era in India and I admittedly don’t know very much about it beyond the basics. But I am surprised that more films don’t utilize the setting and time. It was such an unusual, politically divisive and tragic time in India’s history and Shukla manages to introduce a very whimsical human aspect to bleed out of those themes. That’s what makes “Raag Sarkari” incredibly unique.

Alok Ulfat is fantastic in this film. The warden is not what you expect, especially when you consider the stereotypes of tough cops. He appears to be a simple man who just wants to do his job while exploring his passion at the same time. Ulfat combines a sense of naivete, simplicity, foolishness, desperation and responsibility all at once into the jailer. One scene in particular where he confronts the four prisoners who are believed to be plotting an especially fantastic (and hilarious). And while he simply wants to do his job and not embarrass the police force, he is equally obsessed with his one prisoner’s songs. Towards the end, he figures out what’s important and so does the audience.

With “Raag Sarkari”, Shukla has made a film about the “emergency era” that manages to stay lighthearted without trivializing the gravity of the situation. Every character is not what you expect and every scene has a purpose. It’s engaging, thought-provoking and funny. A rare combination indeed.