‘While We Watched’ Review: A Lament and a Battle Cry

In the opening moments of Vinay Shukla’s documentary “While We Watched,” its topic, the veteran Indian news anchor Ravish Kumar, stands in a partly demolished constructing and wonders, “When you find yourself all alone, whom do you listen to?”

For one of many few high-profile journalists in India who has dared to talk reality to energy — undeterred by falling rankings, dying threats and a authorities more and more hostile to a free press — that is nothing lower than an existential disaster. What, certainly, does a journalist dedicated to being the voice of the individuals do when it appears he is likely to be speaking simply to himself?

“While We Watched” follows Kumar at his job at NDTV, an influential cable TV station, from 2018 to 2021 (a yr earlier than it was acquired in a hostile takeover by a billionaire). The documentary is much less an inspiring story than a sobering wake-up name. The digicam stays near Kumar’s face, which wears a crumpled look of resignation as he and his underfunded group attempt to reaffirm democratic beliefs amid a storm of rabble-rousing rhetoric from competing media retailers that demonize dissent and stoke Islamophobia. The film unfolds like an episode of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” with brisk edits immersing us within the high-stakes, fast-paced and low-reward realm of unbiased news.

Kumar is the voice of purpose to many Indians; to see him so weak is unsettling, although it makes his persistence all of the extra spectacular. Shukla is somewhat too enamored of his topic, in order that political and bureaucratic particulars fade right into a considerably monotonous, stylized story of man towards world. Yet Kumar’s humility and eloquence make sure that the movie by no means slips into hagiography — as a substitute, it lingers as a lament and a battle cry.

While We Watched
Not rated. In English and Hindi, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters.