The West Bengal Prison Department has reason to celebrate, with a film tracing the journey of a convicted killer from jail to freedom winning the Best Documentary Film award at the prestigious Golden Gate Fiction and Documentary festival in Los Angeles. The Jail, directed by Kolkata-based filmmaker Abhijit Dasgupta, focuses on the positive transformation of convicted murderer Nigel Akara within the prison system.

The award comes at a time when director Madhur Bhandarkar is getting ready for the release of his “most honest film” Jail, which promises to bring to screen the harsh realities of an Indian prison.

“It is certainly ironic that while one Jail depicting the Indian prison in a brutal, stereotypical light is releasing tomorrow, another Jail that celebrates the quiet revolution taking place within the prison premises has won such an honour,” said B D Sharma, IG, Prison.

The documentary depicts the life of the prisoner, from his days as an inmate of the Presidency Jail to his final day in prison. Akara’s story as it unfolds in the film is a tale of redemption, as reflected — and indeed paralleled — in his performance as robber-saint Valmiki in Rabindranath Tagore’s dance-drama Balmiki Pratibha earlier this year. Today, Akara is busy carving out a career for himself as a social worker, and also helping other prisoners fight their cases in court.

“Prisons all over the world are essentially the same. All of them deny freedom to their inmates, so the reforms have to be done within the prison premises,” said Sharma.

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