Amartya Sen: A Life Re-examined

by Suman Ghose, Director and Producer
First Run/Icarus Films, NYC, NY, 2003
Running time, 56 minutes

Reviewed by Aparna Sharma

aparna31S@netscape.net

Amartya Sen: A life re-examined, is a documentary about the life and work of Nobel Prize winning economist, Dr. Amartya Sen. Rich and moving, the nearly hour-long film focuses on his contributions in the field of Welfare Economics. The film provides an overview of a vast span of his engagements and achieves in contextualising his thoughts and propositions. The discussions within the film invite the viewer into understanding better the dynamics of economic development, wherein Sen’s arguments have identified the complexities and intricacies of social choice/s. As the film proceeds, it indicates Sen’s thought as emulating dialogue between varied and distinct systems of reason and thinking. From such a position, one begins to appreciate some of the inadequacies of Western Liberalism, and the case for expanding and resituating economic development beyond macroeconomic measures only.

The film combines interviews with a galaxy of scholars, politicians, and associates who comment upon Sen’s work, particularly within the ambit of the Social Choice Theory, and discuss some of his independent research efforts in rural Bengal. Central in lending structure to the film is a conversation between Sen and Economics Professor, Kaushik Basu, from Cornell University. In this conversation, Basu inquires deeply into the evolution of Sen’s thinking, traversing both intellectual and personal trajectories. Rather than interpretation or explanation, the conversation is deconstructive, which besides documentation, facilitates in situating Sen’s ideas within a larger historical and socio-political context. Through editing, this dialogue has been carefully combined with other interviews in the film such that it serves as a delicate framework for the film, fully evoking the import of Sen’s contributions, and introducing the viewer to wider philosophical and cultural implications thereof. Acutely interesting is Harvard historian, Sugata Bose’s succinct and lucid commentary in which he places Amartya Sen in the tradition of thinking shared by two prominent 20^th century Bengalis: Nobel Laureate and literaturer Rabindranath Tagore and filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. Bose holds that in following this tradition including Sen, the intellectual and cultural history of our times could be reinterpreted as being, ‘… characterised by competing and multiple universalisms’, for the three thinkers attest ‘lines of communication that connect different cultures.’ This observation is extremely useful in challenging notions of cultural distinction, innocence, and orientalist sympathies, besides drawing the historical significance of Sen’s contributions outside of his discipline.

The insightfulness of the film is complimented by its structure. Patiently culled facts and sustained arguments including suitable criticisms have been combined with a recollection of Sen’s background, interesting and humorous anecdotes, memories, and minutiae. All these elements wedded together lend an air of ease and rescue the film from the trappings of a dense exchange that might have limited its possibilities. The film’s editing, which has been noted by critics elsewhere, reflects an eye for fine and considered construction. The style and pace of the film are smooth, transitions between sequences gentle, imagery flavoursome and economical, and music poignant–the manner of the film is subtle yet emphatic and parallels the grace and poise characterising the Trinity Master’s own arguments and style.

Through such a refined approach, the film transcends the gross level and dives deeper into unpacking Sen–the individual——in terms of his philosophical leanings, motivations, and convictions. Especially interesting is a brief sequence from a lecture at the Cornell University (2002), where Sen states the need for a secular right-wing political party in India. While he promptly qualifies he may not necessarily vote for it, his remark is intriguing given that he is commonly associated with the Political Economy approach. What makes it more noticeable is timing, in light of the recent landmark mandate marked by an anti-incumbency sentiment against the Hindu nationalist, Bharatiya Janata Party led coalition, which had some of the ingredients Sen spells in the lecture: pro-business and right-wing. This sequence is one of the many in the film that indicate the cruciality of Sen’s thought, which consistently favours and injects complexity in social choice, rather than aligning with any kind of fundamentalist resolution, liberal or otherwise.

Amartya Sen’s research into the subjects of poverty, welfare measurement, and social choice has been widely celebrated. It was only fitting for an in-depth film of this kind to dwell upon his education at some of the most notable institutions in the world (Vishwa Bharati, founded by Rabindranath Tagore at Shantiniketan [West Bengal], the Presidency College, Calcutta, where Sen first encountered the writings of Kenneth Arrow; and later at the Cambridge University, UK) to foreground the instilling and development of an inquiring, concerned, and appreciative attitude that is at the heart of Sen’s pursuits. Not only does the film present the dialogics embodied in Sen’s thinking, but a step further it filters impulses he has interacted with, without compromising on his occupations and philosophical dispositions. This coinciding of the personal and intimate with the intellectual and philosophical is evidenced throughout the film and feeds into making it a profound and outstanding text of historical and interdisciplinary merit. Amartya Sen: A Life Re-examined, is a remarkable documentary that provides a comprehensive account of one of the greatest thinkers of our times. The film is not merely informative; it is an impetus for thought and reflection embellished with valuable views and concerns for the human condition. Touchingly, the film closes with Tagore’s celebrated prayer for liberation: Where the mind is without fear . . . from his most cherished text, Gitanjali.