KOLKATA, India (UCAN) — A Catholic documentary filmmaker says the values imparted by his former Jesuit teachers have helped him portray social issues and spread Christian values in his work.

Ranjan Kamath, who spent 17 years at St. Xavier’s Collegiate School and College in Kolkata presented his 75-minute documentary, “Tanvir ka safarnama” (Tanvir’s travelogue) at Kolkata’s Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan recently.

Ranjan Kamath

The film deals with the making of an essentially Indian stage genre by the late Habib Tanvir, a popular Muslim playwright, in Chhattisgarh, a central Indian state.

Tanvir’s Naya (new) Theatre uses indigenous performance forms to create a new theatrical language.

Kamath, 47, told UCA News he uses documentaries to discuss social problems and that his Jesuit teachers had helped him gain a deeper understanding of societal issues. He says he has made four films on societal issues, ranging from casteism to rural theater.

His latest documentary on Tanvir, who died on June 8 aged 89, shows how Tanvir employed both village performers alongside urban actors to bring his “theater of the people” to the urban “educated.”

Kamath also says the humanism his Jesuit teachers taught him is projected in his films and it also helps him connect to people of other religions.

Jesuit Father Albert Huart, who taught Kamath political science, says many past students have taken up social work after having been influenced by their Jesuit teachers. However, the 85-year-old Belgian Jesuit said he was nevertheless “pleasantly surprised” to know that a student has made documentaries on social issues.

Last January, Kamath and his friends, mostly former students of St. Xavier’s College, also launched C+ve, a social networking group committed to social change through non-violence.

C+ve is a shortened form of “see positively,” and implies that true citizenship is to engage in a process of change in the nation, Kamath explained.

The group also started its “Billion Beejams” (beejams means seedlings), a nationwide reforestation project in July.

Members have asked various groups to donate five rupees (US$0.09) each to green one square foot of the nation. The group uses the money to provide jobs to village women to plant trees, Kamath said.