147 workers of India’s biggest automobile manufacturing company Maruti Suzuki are on trial for the murder of a senior manager and 2500 workers dismissed. It has been two and a half years and the case drags on. The courts have rejected their bail application. On each hearing they are led to the courtroom by the police while families line up to catch a glimpse. The defence lawyers plan their strategy in the court canteen. Justice seems a dim hope. The film follows the fate of the under trial workers, families and dismissed workers to investigate the underbelly of industrial conflict and the elusive nature of justice.
Rahul Roy graduated from the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in 1987 with a post graduate degree in film making. His films have travelled across the globe to various documentary film festivals and have won several prestigious awards. Rahul Roy’s films explore the themes of masculinity and gender relations against the larger background of communalism, labour, class identities and urban spaces. His work has focused primarily on masculinities. Besides film making he has been researching and writing on masculinities. His graphic book on masculinities titled ‘A Little Book on Men’ was recently published by Yoda Press. Roy is the Director of Aakar, a Delhi based trust that works in the area of media, culture and research. Aakar has been engaged in several interventions on masculinities across the South Asian region for more than a decade now.