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The music is well chosen to set the mood for this video, but it is too loud relative to Ms. Roy's voice, so that it is difficult to impossible in several places to catch what she is saying. And she has a way with her words that makes me want to hear every single one of them. So much so, that I decided to see if I could find a video of her speech, like the one that this video is based on. And I did find it, here on the archive, at /details/ArundhatiRoy-Videos-2002-09.



What I noticed almost immediately was that parts of her speech were edited out of this video-- relevant parts, too; there was no fluff in anything she had to say. "Unauthorized"? I doubt she would have appreciated that. The next thing I noticed was that, even though she spoke slowly and deliberately, it was still too fast to take in her ideas. One wants some time to think about each one of them before hearing the next one.



So... Three stars to this video for providing powerful images to back up and add impact to her message, for choosing music that sets the right mood, and for breaking her speech into bite-sized chunks so that the viewer has time to chew over each one. Minus a star for mixing the music too loud to easily hear what Arundhati is saying. Minus another star for editing down her speech. Follow the link above to hear everything she had to say, and to see some of her other speeches. Better yet, search on "Arundhati Roy Come September" and read one of the transcripts that was made from it. Like the producers said at the end of this video, "start reading, or we're all screwed."

- December 4, 2009Unauthorized? No doubt...