Highlighting India's Destitute Millions: Director Kireet Khurana's Announces The 'The Invisible Visible' Documentary

Filmmaker Kireet Khurana, who has won six National Awards, has announced a documentary titled 'The Invisible Visible', highlighting the plight of India's destitute millions.

‘The Invisible Visible’, is an 81 minutes-long documentary that will be released mid-2022. It has been shot across Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Dehradun, Kanpur and a few villages in Maharashtra and Bihar. Khurana said: “India has the largest number of homeless people. It has over 70 million destitute citizens who have been denied their Constitutional right to shelter. The draconian Bombay Beggary Prevention Act 1959 has further criminalised them and made them vulnerable to incarceration, torture and dehumanisation.” He added that the film delineates how the"marginalised and the disenfranchised have been left out in the cold and in some cases, exploited in shelters under the watch of the state, as happened during the infamous Muzaffarpur case, where hundreds of girls between 6 and 15 were raped, tortured and killed."

This grim scenario is explored through the gaze of social organisation Koshish, which has helped countless traumatized homeless citizens, including the survivors from the Muzaffarpur shelter. The film traces the inception of Koshish from the time in 2003, when Tarique, a 17-year-old student from the Hindu College went to a homeless shelter to distribute food and was devastated by the misery confronting him. Khurana added: "At 23, Tarique started 'Koshish', and the film traces the organisation's trailblazing grassroots work and its advocacy in synergy with intellectuals and policymakers to repeal archaic, anti-poor laws. We have also incorporated the views of eminent individuals, stakeholders, top lawyers and NGOs who stand up for the homeless to understand where the system is broken and how it can be fixed."

The Award-winning filmmaker said that this is not just a film but a crusade to raise the "level of human conscience and build a momentum against the sordid Bombay Beggary Prevention Act, (1959)."

Khurana won his first National Award in 1995 for the animated film 'Mahagiri'. He has made over 12 short films and over 500 ad films. He directed the animation called 'Toonpur Ka Superrhero', starring Ajay Devgan and Kajol. His feature film 'T for Taj Mahal', which was released in 2018, was launched at the Festival de Cannes in the same year and premiered at the London Indian Film Festival.