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ov 23 2014 : The Times of India (Mumbai)The gourd that saves a girlMalini
NairOscar-winning director Megan Mylan's short film is about a Bengal teen
who grows vegetables to stave off early marriageAt a local haat in Bhutkura,
Cooch Behar, the pride of Monika Bar man's garden harvest, a giant bottle
gourd, is up for sale. Rs 25 is the price she quotes; too much, says a buyer.
Look at the marks on your vegetable, he argues.Monika laughs in disbelief at
this slur on the gourd she has nursed to full size on the thatched roof of her
home. The deal is finally settled for Rs 20. As the two ten-rupee notes come
into her hands, Monika's face creases into a quiet smile. There is pride there,
and some disbelief. It is the most telling moment in After My Garden Grows, a
10-minute film by Megan Mylan, who earlier directed the Oscar-winning Smile
Pinki.Her latest documentary was shown to a full house at the recent Kolkata
film festival, and was also shown at the Sundance Festival.Along with 40,000
other teenaged girls in West Bengal, 16-year-old Barman is part of the
micro-agricultural programme for adolescents jointly run by the NGO, Landesa,
and the state govern ment. The idea of the scheme is to ensure that youngsters
earn enough from their vegetable gardens to pay for school and use their
financial independence to stave off early marriage and motherhood.
“When will you get married if not now?“ asks the exasperated mother as the
family chats. “After my garden grows?“ Monika replies, somewhat tentatively.
The viewer won't ever know if she does indeed manage to resist the overwhelming
pressure to avoid early marriage, if her parents will avoid the debt of Rs
20,000 for her dowry or if she will make a success of her garden venture. But
for the film's duration, we are all drawn into the life and dilemmas of the
Barman family.
“There was a certain simplicity to the story of gardening and her trip to the
market for the first time. The garden could be taken as a metaphor for Monika's
own life and fam ily without hitting the audiences with the idea,“ says the
American filmmaker.
The film, backed by Sundance Institute, is a slice of Monika's life in
Bhutkura. You see her tending her greens and gourds on a small plot of family
land, arguing with her parents about being married off early, cracking up with
other girls in the project about the irony of gender skew. And slowly realizing
her own strength.
Actor Aamir Khan says that it took all of 10 minutes to move him to tears. “You
are there when she goes to the market and you have been with her on her journey
before.
And you know she deserves the best price she can get. In my head I am fighting
for her, say ing, `Arre yaar, don't bargain. Give her that Rs 20. The best
thing about the film is that it subtly takes you into her life, allowing the
characters to tell their own story,“ he says.
Mylan says she does not see herself as an activist. “My job is to stir things
up, not tell people what to do. All the film says is that give girls the choice
to do what they wish with their lives. The audiences realize that there are all
kinds of complexities at work There is this girl, for instance, who complains
that her sister has graduated but couldn't find a job or a husband,“ she says.
Monika and her sister Konika have tasted some fame having travelled with the
film to Mumbai recently. The screening was attend ed by a several celebrities
including Khan.
But for all that, the teenager is as level-head ed as she appears in the film.
“The film is not going to change my life dramatically. If it helps other young
girls, I will be happy. But I have to finish school, maybe buy a small plot of
land and farm on it with the money I am saving in a post office account every
month, maybe buy a little gold,“ says Monika, who has saved Rs 50 so far. She's
clear about her own reality and the film's place in her life though she's fuzzy
about the price of gold.
