Filmmaker Bilal Jan on the sets with JL Kaul | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
There was a brief buzz about a film on Jawaharlal Kaul, a visually challenged man who ignored his limitations and took up social work. Kaul himself was awarded the Padma Shri for the efforts he made to improve the lives of people around him in Kashmir.
Kaul’s continuous struggle inspired Bilal e Jan, a documentary filmmaker from Kashmir, to make a film on the man who lost his eyesight under tragic circumstances. He was blinded by a smallpox attack at the age of five.
Jan can’t stop talking about Kaul and his work and what inspired him to direct JL Kaul: A Man of Action.
“I was deeply moved by Kaul’s endless struggle, not because he is a native of Kashmir but because he is so passionate about social work despite being visually impaired. He is a goal-oriented person. The internal and external struggles and heartbreaking hardships have not dampened his enthusiasm or his outlook towards the world,” Jan said in a telephonic conversation.
Social activist JL Kaul with filmmaker Bilal Jan | Photo courtesy: Special Arrangement
The film was shot in Srinagar, Amritsar and Delhi, where Kaul had set up a training and rehabilitation centre for the blind in 1967. Today, the All India Conference for the Blind, founded by him, runs a modern school for visually impaired children, an audio library besides Braille equipment, banking and pensions for the elderly.
The 30-minute documentary took a year to complete. The long time taken in its production is being attributed to financial constraints and the challenges faced in working with visually impaired people.
“The biggest challenge was finding a financier. The other challenge was understanding and interacting with the life and struggles of a visually impaired person and managing visually impaired persons during the filming process. As a director, this was the first time for me that I was working on a subject related to disability. In the past, I have worked extensively on social issues,” says Jan.
Of course, it didn’t help that the film’s protagonist Kaul lived in Delhi. “Kaul sahab’s work is spread across India. So I had to cover other locations as well. I shot the film in stages rather than in one go,” he says.
Kashmiri documentary filmmaker Bilal Jan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Produced by National Film Development Corporation, Mumbai, the film has been selected for the Short Documentary Focus section of the 16th International Documentary Film Festival of Kerala.
The festival will begin on July 21. For Jaan, this is a homecoming of sorts. His film Daughters of Paradise was also included in the Kerala Film Festival in 2018.
Visually impaired social worker Jawahar Lal Kaul | Photo courtesy: Special Arrangement
