Insides and Outsides

Insides and Outsides starts its journey from the end of 2019, when an uprising against anti-muslim/discriminatory legislation (CAA/NRC protests) was at its peak in India, and ends at 2022 where the lives of many were upturned in the wake of the pandemic.The film majorly has three characters, Arbab’s mother and father in front of the camera and him behind. The film briefly begins in Ahmedabad as it covers the protests taking place there, coming to a halt with the pandemic. It takes an interior turn as the first lockdown is imposed, and Arbab returns to his parents. He probes into the question of identity- that of his mother＇s, his father＇s, and how they differ from each other in dealing with an increasing sense of discrimination. In the midst of an unceasing pandemic, he explores the anxieties he feels at a personal level and what is felt by his parents at a collective religious one, finding links between the two and holding them up to the light.