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A requiem for the dead

Firdaus Ali

To commit a crime is immoral. To tolerate a crime is unforgivable
- RCMP web site on the Air India bombing disaster

"If you want to get mad at me, get in line," says Canadian filmmaker Shelley Saywell, who won accolades for her film Legacy of Terror: The Bombing of Air-India, which premiered on Canadian television recently.

The film is based on the June 1985 bombing of Air-India Flight No 182, the worst in aviation history, in which 329 people perished.

The Canadian media dubbed the film "an emotionally devastating film that will remain with you for a long, long time" and "a film that grabs your heart and squeezes it mercilessly". Saywell is happy.

"At least they're reacting to the tragedy, even if it's a good 15 years late," she says.

Saywell, an independent documentary film maker from Canada, who has directed, produced and written the film, managed to evoke the wrath of some, while making many others reflective.

She has won awards for her previous films, Kim's Story: The Road from Vietnam, Rape: A Crime of War about Bosnia, and No Man's Land, shot in Afghanistan. Her sensitive films won her the UNESCO's Gandhi Silver Medal last year for promoting the culture of peace.

Be it rape victims or human rights abuse in war-torn countries like Bosnia, Afghanistan or Iraq -- Saywell is sure to find her way through the thickest flak, camera in tow.

All her films focus on victims recounting tales of horror and pain. Saywell's Canadian film production company Bishari Film Productions Inc has managed to give a humane face to the most horrific tragedies. The tale of Air-India Flight 182 that crashed into the north Atlantic en route from Toronto to India, is just one of them.

"If I am making a film, and spending the next months of my life shaping and honing it, the subject had better be something I care for immensely," says Saywell. And Legacy of Terror is a film close to her heart. The film tells us more than what previous newspaper articles on television clips have over the past 15 years. Parallel stories are told as Saywell takes us inside the families who lost children in the bombing and then slowly explains who did the bombing and how they got away with it.

The film begins and ends on the bleak, rain-soaked Irish coast where the relatives mourn the 80 children who died when the plane blew apart a few miles out to sea. We meet the mothers and fathers, see the home video of the children at Christmas and feel the pain at their death.

Legacy of Terror also traces the grief of four affected families while studying the ongoing investigation. It is dedicated to all 329 people who died aboard the fatal flight.

"There was immense heartbreak for the families as the authorities never acknowledged it as a Canadian tragedy. The mere name, 'Air-India', sounded foreign to begin with. It was misconstrued as a tragedy merely for the hyphenated Canadians or the so-called Indo-Canadians, it seems," says Saywell.

What makes the film different from other short documentaries made on the Air India bombing is that it does not dwell on the legal tangles and investigations, only providing an update on them. It focuses on the human face of the tragedy itself, giving you an insight into how families are dealing with their loss a good 14 years later.

The film moves from the personal to the political, delving into the contentious view of Sikh separatists that led to the act of terrorism. Journalists and other aviation experts reflect on the mistakes made in the investigation. The two main suspects -- Inderjit Singh Reyat and Talwinder Singh Parmar -- were never charged for the crime. While Reyat was convicted for another related bombing at Tokyo's Narita airport and is serving his ninth year of a ten-year sentence in prison, he was never convicted for the Air-India bombing. Parmar fled to India and was later killed in a police encounter.

The parallel separatists' story is told when a Sikh militant caught on surveillance video says, "At this stage of the game, I'm not really concerned about the number of lives lost." Later he talks about the "price of our revolution."

The turning point of the tragedy is that the Sikh community in Canada has now condemned the abominable crime. The Sikh temple in British Columbia, from which the terrorists plotted the bombing, made history recently by holding, on the 14th anniversary of the tragedy last June, a memorial for those who died on flight 182.

"This means there is hope and justice, though delayed, will not be denied," says Saywell.

Her film, a moving one-hour documentary, was inspired by her personal relationship with Sarojini Laurence and her two daughters Shyamala and Kritika who were killed in the bombing.

"I had filmed the Laurence girls earlier for a children's series for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Television network. A friend called and said the tape of their performances was still lying with her and that's how the idea originated," says Shelley.

It was difficult at first to get the families to describe their grief, but Shelley's long-standing relationship with them helped. The families, while learning to cope with the tragedy, began treating Shelley as their therapist.

"In a way I gave a bit and got quite a lot back in return," says Shelley with a sigh.

The film opens with Sarojini Laurence waiting at the Irish coast for the bodies of her two daughters to arrive. It goes on to show clips of five victims, all of them teenaged girls who shared a passion of dance. There were moments of pain as the families sift through diaries, memories and boxes filled with memoirs, photos and more.

Two other sisters and dancing companions -- Brinda and Arti Pada -- also perished in the tragedy along with their father Vishnu Pada. Today, Lata Pada who lost her husband and two daughters seeks the answers to an unexplained tragedy.

She is the soul of the film, her elegance and grace masking the betrayal she felt when religious hatred and human error, stole her family away.

There is the Sarangi couple who lost their daughter Lata in the crash. At first they refused to believe that the tragedy had occurred. They were in shock several days after the crash.

The film also features Eddie Madon, an angry and hurt young man, who lost his father in the tragedy.

Saywell cried with the families as she filmed the aftermath of the tragedy and how families were coping with the loss of their loved ones.

"It is impossible to witness their ordeal and not to feel for them," she says. The film took her to gurdwaras in Vancouver and even to India.

While Lata Pada today has found solace in dance, Sarojini Laurence has made a spiritual journey to India. Meena and Raja Sarangi are still adjusting to the tragedy.

"To them it's still so fresh, like it happened yesterday," says Saywell. But the authorities are yet to publicly acknowledge that the Air-India tragedy is a Canadian one too.

"The families want their stories and loss to be acknowledged in the country they have come to call their homeland," says Saywell.

The first arrest warrant in the case is likely to be issued sometime soon. The case against the accused has received international attention now.

"There are 800 witnesses and over half-a-million documents on the case. So there is hope. All is not over for the families yet," says Saywell hopefully.

After Legacy of Terror, Saywell's next film, Through Her Life, is based on a woman who has survived the Holocaust and who has her entire life frozen in photographs.

"Then maybe I'll make a film on a happy subject..."laughs Saywell.

But not just yet...

Next: NRIs pleased about new dept for them

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