Jan 28 2026 to Jan 28 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

104 minutes | Marathi with English subtitles | Belgium, India, The Netherlands | 2024

What does courage look like when survival itself is an act of defiance?

Set against the backdrop of India’s agrarian crisis, this film follows Sanjeevani, a young widow who refuses to be defined by loss or by the social isolation imposed on women like her. Determined to build a future for herself and her children, she finds strength not in solitary endurance, but in community; connecting with other widows who share their grief, their fears, and their resolve. Together, they transform private sorrow into collective resilience.

Following the screening, filmmaker Kinshuk Surjan is joined by Kavita Kuruganti of Makaam, in conversation moderated by Swati Dandekar, to reflect on women farmers, labour, and the power of shared struggle. The session will close with a Q&A.

In collaboration with:

Speakers

Kinshuk Surjan
Filmmaker
Kinshuk Surjan is an Indian filmmaker based between Brussels and Bhopal. His graduation film Pola, made at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, won the Indian National Student Film Awards for Best Film and Best Script in 2013. He later worked as a second assistant director on Island City, awarded at the Venice Film Festival, before pursuing a master’s degree at DocNomads. His films have screened widely, including Divided Lines at the Jihlava Film Festival in 2015. His debut feature documentary Marching in the Dark premiered at CPH:DOX in 2024, received a Special Mention from the Human Rights Award Jury, and won the Basil Wright Film Award at the RAI Film Festival.

Kavitha Kurugunti
Social Activist
Kavitha Kuruganti is a Mysuru-based social activist whose work centres on empowering farmers and strengthening sustainable farm livelihoods, with particular attention to marginalised and invisibilised communities. Trained as a development communicator, she has spent over thirty-two years working at the intersection of agriculture, policy, and thSwati Dandekar is a documentary filmmaker and film educator based in Bengaluru, whose work engages closely with the living histories of people, places, ideas, and practices, and with the processes of change that shape them. Alongside filmmaking, she has been deeply involved in designing media for education. As a founder trustee of Vikalp Bengaluru, she has curated and presented documentary film screenings and festivals in the city for over fifteen years. Swati currently heads the film programme at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, where she continues to nurture critical visual storytelling and pedagogy.e democratisation of science and technology. Kavitha is closely associated with volunteer-driven national networks such as ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture) and MAKAAM (Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch). She has served in advisory roles on several Government of India committees and task forces, and regularly facilitates public conversations on understanding India’s agrarian crisis and the lived realities of women farmers.

Swati Dandekar
Documentary Filmmaker & Film Educator
Swati Dandekar is a documentary filmmaker and film educator based in Bengaluru, whose work engages closely with the living histories of people, places, ideas, and practices, and with the processes of change that shape them. Alongside filmmaking, she has been deeply involved in designing media for education. As a founder trustee of Vikalp Bengaluru, she has curated and presented documentary film screenings and festivals in the city for over fifteen years. Swati currently heads the film programme at the Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, where she continues to nurture critical visual storytelling and pedagogy.