Thoughts in a Museum

This film is a dark, brooding walk through the Nehru Memorial Museum at Teen Murti Bhavan in Delhi. It starts by stating that it is a reconstruction of history by using a collection of images from earlier documentaries and newsreels of Films Division. Some beautiful and rarely seen footage of Pandit Nehru in his official journeys and personal moments is made poignant in the context of his demise and his house being turned into a museum. What looks like a fairly straightforward “tribute” film, keeps knocking us into a sense of disorientation and loss, with its departures from the accepted “documentary” film language. The archival footage becomes a statement on memory, recording and forgetting, with its different degrees of ageing.