As the thick smog enveloping the country’s Capital descends further into an ecological crisis, the conversation around climate change feels more real than ever. Director Nila Madhab Panda drives the point home with his upcoming film on the grim and difficult reality of climate change. “I felt it is day to day life for us,” says Panda when asked where the inspiration for Kadvi Hawa came from. Over a telephonic interview, Panda talks to The Hindu about the upcoming release, and the importance of holding a mirror up to society.
Kadvi Hawa revolves around the extreme conditions of the drought-stricken Bundelkhand region and the flood-ridden areas of Odisha. It unpacks the multitudinous issues and dangers climate change poses through the tales of its protagonists — a farmer, a rural woman, and a loan recovery agent. While the characters are based on people Panda has encountered in real life, the director has stitched metaphors into their construction. Take, for instance, the loan recovery agent. “He has a tough job, but if he can do it, he could get double or triple the commission. So he wants to survive at the cost of anybody,” explains Panda. “He is a metaphor for today’s man-eating-man situation.”
Panda continues to say that the film’s focal point is the emotional and economical impact climate change has on those who suffer the most – the disenfranchised classes who had little to contribute to the cataclysmic situation they face. Regarding India coming under the spotlight as a developing nation with increasing rural-to-urban transitions, the director says he sees the workings of a futile blame game. “Our population is our asset,” he asserts, “and if we get a little [more environmentally] conscious, we can do a lot.”
This principle of staying aware and conscious of our surroundings is what Panda swears by. The director’s works often focus on social problems. For example, I am Kalam (2010) was centred on education and the divide between social classes, while Jalpari: The Desert Mermaid (2012) discussed female foeticide, and Kaun Kitney Paani Mein (2015) was a satire on issues of caste discrimination and even water scarcity. Panda shares that his filmmaking career was built on him wanting to be an “agent of social change through [his] cinema,” after a stint in selling Nokia phones during the ’90s.
Describing the unusual shift in professions, Panda begins by saying he developed a love and skill for storytelling having grown up in a joint family. “[It] was like the sets of Mahabharata. We had [the] jealousy, anger, everything,” he shares. In 1995, Panda moved to Delhi in search of work, and got a job to sell Nokia phones during the onset of the mobile revolution. Self-proclaimed management guru and educationist Arindam Chaudhuri, along with his father Malay Chaudhuri, were among his customers, and the young Panda felt his success was a product of his strength in storytelling. Around the same time, Panda would accompany some friends working in television and was fascinated by the process of the shoots. “How beautiful it is,” says the director, “to capture those images on camera and tell stories.”
Panda began by working on television documentaries including Swajaldhara (2002), which looked into water supply in rural India, and Climate’s First Orphans (2005), a documentary short about the effect of rising sea levels on the villagers of Odisha’s coasts. “I was exposed to various things,” he says while listing issues from poverty to drought, “which [allowed] me to explore my own story ideas.” He adds that the exposure led him to appreciate the “innocence and simplicity” of India – an observation that carries over into his directorial voice. The idea of bringing marginalised stories to the fore was what drove Panda to establish a production house called Eleeanore Images. “It’s very important,” says Panda, “that in [everything] you do, to find a way to contribute to society.”
One then wonders if the director is disillusioned by mainstream cinema, but Panda answers in the negative. “We deserve every kind of cinema,” he asserts before adding, “ Om Shanti Om and Dabangg [were] also good films because [they] entertained me. So I don’t think anybody should dictate [to] artistes.”
Panda says it is a fantastic time for Indian cinema with smaller budget films like Newton (2017) working at the box office. He attributes the change to wider and easier exposure to a variety of international content. “People are hungry for newer content,” he asserts.
