The Oscar-Nominated Film That Offers a Master Class in Journalism
About an hour into the Oscar-nominated documentary Writing With Fire, a young man—slim, bearded, dressed in a saffron-colored pajama set—flicks his hair and smiles. Then he unsheathes a sword, a metallic echo lingering several seconds after it is drawn. Meera, the bureau chief for India’s Khabar Lahariya newspaper, is recording the young man on her phone. His name is Satyam, and he’s a rising leader in Hindu Yuva Vahini, the local youth-led vigilante group committed to spreading Hindu nationalism across an India that is rapidly losing its secular roots. Many of his days include strolls around his village in Uttar Pradesh with his sword displayed menacingly at his waist; he tells Meera that he keeps it with him “24 hours” a day.
As a journalist, Meera is known for stories that demand accountability from state politicians and police. She is also Dalit,
