Kedar Mishra
Indeed it should have been a headline story for every newspaper in Odisha, but no, we don’t exactly know what should really be a headline. When one of our Odia man chosen by the United Nation to make a film on climate change and he is one among the best eleven celluloid minds, we don’t even bother to make it a small news. Though he gets global media attention and many national newspapers carry special feature on his extraordinary work on climatic change, in Odisha we are yet to know the first line of the story. Yes, I do talk about Nila Madhab Panda, the famous filmmaker of “I Am Kalam” and “Kadwi Hawa” has been recently in news for his extraordinary achievement to be a part of UN’s path breaking cinematic anthology on climate change.
UN Department of Public Information (UNDPI) in a press release said that together with the national award winning Indian filmmaker NILA MADHAB PANDA, Art For The World, a special project of UNDPI has selected 11 well-known filmmakers from the five continents such as: FAOUZI BENSAÏDI (MOROCCO), ÁSA HJÖRLEIFSDÓTTIR (ICELAND), SALOME LAMAS (PORTUGAL), BETTINA OBERLI (SWITZERLAND), SHAHRBANOO SADAT (AFGHANISTAN), MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN (TCHAD), LEON WANG (CHINA), DANIELA THOMAS (BRAZIL), SILVIO SOLDINI ( ITALY), KARIN WILLIAMS (NEW ZEALAND). UN also says that These internationally recognized eleven filmmakers have joined forces to raise awareness on the effects of Climate Change by contributing to a unique long feature film composed by eleven 6’ to 9’ short-movies (docu-fiction, drama, comedy, SF) to explore our urgent needs to reduce environmental damage and to preserve our natural resources, in respect for our life on this Planet.
As a sensitive Indian film maker Nila Madhab always takes his cinematic venture as a medium of social change. His earlier films like Kadwi Hawa and Halka have extensively dealt with larger social concerns of our time. In his new film “Megha’s Divorce”, he portrays a sensitive and poignant look at a relationship desperately hanging in balance, in the harsh conditions of an advanced urban environment of Delhi in times of extreme Air Pollution. The story comes from Mr. Panda’s own experiences in Delhi which has been his home for past several years.
Nila Madhab Panda says about the inspiration behind this story, “I grew up on the bank of one of the most beautiful and longest rivers of Eastern India Mahanadi. The river, the village and the little forest taught us about seasons and nature’s ecosystem. I learned seasons and weather patterns through the color, bird voice, and growth of food grain, fruits, flower and vegetable. I moved to Delhi in the year 1995 from my village for a better life. Things moved really fast in probably last 20 years. Indeed, I am thankful to this city for giving me the opportunities to stand today, but it has also cost a lot for family and me. We are just waiting my son’s school to get over so that we can move out of this city. My son was born on 2004, healthy, handsome and beautiful chubby kid. Who loved sprint like me. He used to go for raining early morning at 5 am before school, two years back we realized, he is developing sever cough and 2 breathing problem, so we have to stop his practice due to pollution. We made him stay indoors with Air Filters.”
Mr. Panda’s film, which boils up into an interesting courtroom drama between a divorce-seeking couple and their respective lawyers in a Delhi family court, is under production currently. It stars Divya Dutta, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Chandan Anand and Manjari Fadnis in key roles.
To be launched in the latter half of 2019, the film will participate in Film Festivals, be presented at Climate Conferences and will be distributed by the Eurovision/European Broadcasting Union on all its partner TV channels around the world. They will be as well distributed by ART for The World and its partners and UN Agencies in universities, NGO network, social media, in-flight screenings, museums, cultural institutions, etc. Presentations of the films will be planned on the five continents, together with supporting workshops, dialogues and educational activities in order to raise awareness on the effects of Climate Change to the largest possible audience.
