Satire on a serious issue'-Pani pani re

A short film on water, laced with humour, shows the plight we would be in, if water isn’t conserved

A scene from Pani pani re

What are we doing to fight the water crisis? Having walks, conducting talks, holding placards and discussing the worsening situation. But what would it be really like to live like kings and queens in palaces in a water-starved world?

In an attempt to help us all visualise the gravity of the crisis, Tawseef A. Quazi decided to make a satirical Hindi-Deccani short film Pani Pani Re that does more than just talk about the crisis. Instead, it shows what it would be like to live in a world where the price of drinking water per litre is increased every few days, due to which people consume less water which in turn takes a heavy toll on the body, in the form of kidney stones.

In the opening scene, the movie shows how one of the characters in the movie, played by Mayanand Thakur, can’t even get up easily from his seated position because his kidney stones are making the otherwise skinny man, heavy.

“The idea was to educate people and there is no better way to portray an issue than with the help of comedy. I wrote the script, the dialogues and even directed the movie. I was keen on making it appealing to a larger audience,” explains Tawseef A. Quazi, the director. He is working on these issues along with Tajalli productions who are making short movies on issues of unity, peace and social causes.

“Tajalli Productions is new and I have been working with them on a couple of projects. The issue of water scarcity is huge and the quite topical. So I readily agreed to work on it,” says Tawseef.

Actor Mayanand Thakur says, “I got involved because of the script. We are in a situation where many people aren’t getting any water to drink, forget safe healthy drinking water. My role was for just a few scenes, so I shot for about two days.” The entire shoot took about a week.

Pani Pani Re is on YouTube. Don’t miss the scene where the groom is asked to enquire how frequently the bride prefers to take bath; because the lesser a person bathes, the more water and money the family can save.

The movie will be screened today at Lamakaan.