While Hollywood has been churning out disaster movies for decades, Hindi film industry seems to be breathing a different air. It is not that we were not hit by tsunami or cataclysmic cyclones on our eastern coast, but somehow our filmmakers believe that all is well with the environment. There have been a few instances in the past where a sensitive director has brought in environmental issues within the realm of a Hindi entertainer. Many summers back, Manoj Kumar’s Shor raised the issue of noise pollution. In Aruna-Vikas’ Gehrayee , the supernatural thriller acquired its depth and timeless appeal from its subtle hints on how our greed/ ignorance is destroying our natural environment. Ashivn Kumar also touched upon this thought in The Forest .
Last year, while most watched Pink as a feminist narrative, one also saw in Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury film a dark reflection of the air we are breathing. The defence lawyer played by Amitabh Bachchan wears a rather intimidating mask giving us a sense of social and environmental dystopia that is setting in. The writer doesn’t spell out the pollution issue but the visuals make us relate to the mornings in Delhi in early winter.
It is not that the government doesn’t recognise this genre. In fact, in the National Awards, there is a separate category of awards for films on environment conservation/ preservation but somehow no Hindi film has made the cut in this category. Of course, there have been many world class documentaries but perhaps, the creative writers and filmmakers of Mumbai film industry don’t see environment as a mass issue or they don’t have the requisite skill to weave an ‘entertaining’ story around the issue.
This week Nila Madhab Panda is trying to break the mould by presenting a film which links farmer suicide to climate change. Kadvi Hawa has the rare distinction of being screened in the Indian Panorama of the ongoing International Film Festival of India in Goa and at a theatre in the same week. “More than farmer suicide, we are trying to tell the story of wind,” says Panda, who shot to fame with I Am Kalam. “ Wind is central to the ecosystem and farmer is the most important human figure that is impacted by it.” It is the farmer, he says, who suffers the most from climate change. “A farmer takes loan because of crop failure. So if the number of farmer suicides are increasing, natural disaster is one of the important factors. And the biggest irony is that the farmer is least responsible for climate change because his carbon footprint is minuscule. When he should be central to any policy on climate change, his voice is not being heard.”
Time to act
For those who still deny that climate change is a big issue, Panda poses a few questions. “Were the schools closing down because of pollution five year back? Has the intensity of cyclones not increased in coastal Odisha? Has the increase in sea level not threatening to submerge the coastal areas of Mumbai? My only submission is that time is running out. We should act now or it will be too late.”
Set in the drought prone Bundelkhand region, the film tells the story through an old blind man who fears that his son might commit suicide because of crop failure. The son has taken loan and the recovery agent of the bank hails from coastal Odisha. His family is staring at destruction because of cyclone. “Climate change is the connecting link, the common villain of their stories,” says Panda, who hails from Odisha. “I could see the bigger picture because I am the son of an Odia farmer and live in Delhi now.”
Panda feels it is the writing part that keeps the filmmakers away from mounting such subjects. “Of course, there are commercial reasons as well. One has to understand that every film is commercial and every one aspires that his film recovers its cost. In films like Kadvi Hawa , at least two years are spent on research and raising funds and even then when the film is ready, you are not sure whether it will find audience. In such a scenario, most fimmakers feel that repeating a police-bandit chase is a safe bet. However, the limitations could be overcome if you have the right ‘thought’.”
Panda explains had he made a film on farmer suicide or cyclones in Odisha it would have lacked novelty as they have been portrayed before. “By linking the two, I have raised the context to the global level. Now from Chambal to California anyone can identify with it. The Americans, who have faced a number of hurricanes in the last few years will identify with the plight of people of Odisha.” The film is shot in Chambal region, near Dholpur because Panda wanted his audience to feel thirsty after watching the visuals. “There unfiltered water is sold in small polythene bags tied with a rubber band,” he recalls his tough days of reconnaissance.
He has used dark humour to make his point. “My experience tells me that even in the most difficult of situations we find ways to entertain ourselves. In the film, a child tells the teacher that there are only two seasons as it doesn’t rain anymore.” Similarly, the blind old man, portrayed by the talented Sanjay Mishra, is a metaphor for our inability to see the writing on the wall. “When a poor, old, blind man, who has little value in his surroundings could ‘see’ it, why are we acting blind,” asks Panda.
The Padma Shri awardee says the government is showing interest in the film. “We are working with the government because on big policy matters you cannot do much without its support.”
