Documentary Review The Nero's guests by P.Sainath

 The Nero's guests by P.Sainath

Nero's guests is a documentary directed by Deepa Bhatia. Which revolves around the issue of the farmers suicide from 1997 and the governments reluctant response towards the suicide's taking place. Which was written by the journalist of the Hindu - P.Sainath.

The film opens with the journalist P. Sainath the rural affairs editor, the Hindu addressing the people and asks them who were Nero’s Guests? After 5 and years of covering suicides he thinks he has got the answer. India is a land where 60% of the population is dependent on agriculture alone. Nearly 2,00,000 farmers have taken their life due to distress and debt. They take loan in order to expand and grow their productivity but in the end neither their productivity increases nor they get enough to pay the money lenders. This takes them into a situation where they feel they are worthless. Vidarbha is a place in Maharashtra where farmers suicide are increasing at a very rapid pace 2 or 3 per day. What makes them take their life? A very clear answer that we see in the movie is sad faces of the family members, burden of debts…show more content…

He was a passionate farmer. But he even took his life because he cannot bear the burden. This movie also shows us that not only man but women also are committing suicide. There is alarming increase in number of death in women due to farming but nobody cares because in our society women only plays the role of caretaker. They are just the farmer’s wives. Women are not considered as farmers as only a man can be a farmer. In the movie a girl named Sudha was asked about an enduring memory of her mother who committed suicide and it was shocking when she said she does not have any as when she slept her mother was working when she woke her was working. The children hardly know their mothers because they are so busy in working so that they can feed them something. This film shows us that how insensitive is our government towards its citizen. They commit suicide due to government policies as their purchasing power gets affected because of these policies. The poor farmer is unable to buy pesticides and fertilizers due to their high cost. Even if they invest the outcome they yield is to low for farming.

So, the question is who were Nero's Guests? Drawing from the present Indian and the worldly context, they were common people like us; we the middle income, high income, well-off people not facing such acute problems of hunger, debt, destitution. It was not Nero who could be held responsible for the wrongdoings. As they say, "Citizens get the government they deserve." Had they protested against the wrongdoings Nero would have stopped it. After all he threw the grand party for his citizens.