RIFLE RANGE BOY: festival. left

An Insignificant Man (2017)

Director: Khushboo Ranka & Vinay Shukla

Another highlight of the Malaysian Freedom Film Festival is the screening of the biopic of a taxman who decided to change the landscape of politics after a bitter event in the course of his work. Arvind Kejriwal, at a time when Anna Hazare started fasting to make people realise the widespread of corruption in Indian politics, started a new political party by the name of Aap Aadmi Party (AAP). Using the logo of a broom as its party symbol, he had hoped to clean Indian politics. Much to everybody's astonishment, this newbie did manage to oust the long-standing Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit of the Congress Party.

This documentary tells in a much convincing manner, the trials and tribulations of an everyday man who is a greenhorn to the mind-boggling world of politics in his single-minded zest to fight cancer the society. He comes to realise that it is not easy to change the society. The community, at large, has come to terms that the system is unscrupulous. Rather than fighting an unwinnable battle against an unassailable enemy, they have resigned to the fact it is more beneficial just to embrace the wrong-doings rather than change the status quo.

Kejriwal, through his unrelenting spirit and with his selection of a trustworthy band of social reformers, managed to single-handedly shatter the idea that only wealthy politicians with past track records and connections with the two major political parties can win the election. With his single gesture, he changed the political landscape of India forever.

Unfortunately, the noblest of intentions also meet resistance. His long standing 'generals' and 'doyens' of the party parted ways along the way. It only goes on to show that life is a zero-sum game. Gains on one side is the loss of the other. No single action is all-good or all-wrong. There are always merits and demerits in any action. The best course of action is the composite of one which the best to the most. In the course of action, there are bound to be resentment and retaliation. At the end of these objections would hopefully propel the human race to a higher level of culture, evolution and wisdom.