Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Film with a message
FILMS WITH happy endings are usually favoured by the audience. This one had one too. But only as a postscript.
This 45-minute film on the endosulfan tragedy `In God's Own Country' brings to the public eye the suffering of the residents of Kasargode district of Kerala. From physical and mental deformities to serious gynaecological and respiratory disorders, endosulfan spraying on the cashew plantation in Kasargode has literally impaired one whole generation of people living on the fringes of the plantation area.
Studies and counter-studies later, the Kerala High Court last week decided to ban the aerial spraying of endosulfan temporarily before a Central committee evaluates the pesticide's effect on the human body. The movie, though, ends with a close look at the suffering of the people.
The person behind the film has a strong Chennai connection. Nina Subramani, now settled in New Delhi, intends to take this film to the Delhi audience too. Her co-director, Rajani Mani, was working out the logistics.
Her next venture will be on Eloor, a 14-square km island off Kochi which has over 200 pesticide factories.
Nina's career in film-making began in 1997 as an assistant director of Maneka's Ark, the talk show on environment and wildlife hosted by Maneka Gandhi.
A couple of jobs later, she decided to make independent films `more on environment than wildlife' under the banner Elephant Corridor.
The scenario, however, is not too pleasant as funding is hard to come by. ``The TV channels would rather go for a soap or a masala series rather than on environment.''
With some interest generated on environment issues like plastic and solid waste, there could be a scope for environmental filmmakers to fit in. ``We are going to try out every possibility,'' she says. If only there was a strong environment documentary film genre in this part of the world, funded either by public service television (read Doordarshan) or by pro-active NGOs.
As those who monitor the global trends know only too well, despite the successes of the green revolution, the question of rampant use of pesticides, some of them banned in the developed world for grave health risk, remains unresolved here. People simply have to eat a significant level of poisons along with their vegetables everyday!
By Saptarshi Bhattacharya
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
|
