The Frog is the Pond's Witness (2022)

• 84%
• 2022
• Anuj Malhotra

A photoplay that depicts various social performances: conversation, labour, gossip, revelry, dinner, conspiracy - that transpire on the sidelines of an annual religious congregation inside a New Delhi public park. The observer declares the distance of their vantage point from the event of the ceremony and employs this facility to map the topographies of inclusion and exclusion that exist across the parkscape. The title of the film refers to an old Punjabi proverb: 'Khuaje da Guwah Daddu ('ਖੁਆਜੇ ਦਾ ਗੁਵਾਹ ਡੱਡੂ)', which describes the frog who claims to be - much like the filmmaker and the park - a witness of the life within the pond. The phrase is doused in lament, though, for how can a frog describe without bias a system that ultimately stands to benefit it.