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DOCUMENTARY>> MAHUA MEMOIRS • produced in collaboration with Equations and
HIVOS regional office
It is sometimes easy to dismiss a film like Mahua Memoirs as activist
harangue. After all, it is about the impact of mining on tribal people—not
exactly a subject that will draw the multiplex-going public. But there is an
ineffable poignancy about Mahua Memoirs that holds your attention
once—rather if—you decide to see it.
The film documents stories from the mining belt of India. But with a rare
charm. The adivasi present their case in Mahua Memoirs.
It is difficult to miss the thrust of the argument when a young girl in the
Niyamgiri hills, threatened with eviction because of mining, wonders how she
will survive in a new area that does not have mangoes, tubers and other
local fruits.
The film follows Thirku, a Baiga from the Maikal Hills, practising shifting
cultivation, and Saloo, a bard. It takes us to some well known—and some not
so well known—mining locales. The most infamous of mining cases are there;
Vedanta and Kalinga Nagar, for example.
Shot in far-flung areas of Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, and Andhra
Pradesh, the film races back and forth from 2002 to 2006, and across
landscapes, weaving together episodes. Tribal communities, some of the
poorest and most deprived people in the country, are ranged against strong
business groups. The adivasi lands are rich in minerals that industry
covets. The film captures the adivasi's reluctance in leaving the only way
of life they know. But eviction looms large: big businesses most often have
it easy, because the adivasi do not have land deeds.
And the stage is set for violence, against people as well the ecology. Most
adivasi communities practise agriculture with a system of crop rotation,
under which land is farmed for three years and then left fallow for a couple
of years to regain its fertility, mining involves digging away soil, making
it infertile for generations.
Vinod Raja gets the film's message through without much slapdash. The
simplicity of the shots is remarkable. For example: shots of a mining
conference, where all the business deals are made, are juxtaposed with the
scenes from the remote areas where the decision will actually be
implemented. There is a stark contrast between the area where theadivasi
live and collect their mahua, singing eulogies to the tree, with the area
where the coal is mined.
The twang of Saloo's instrument today gets drowned against the angry growl
of the miners' trucks. The alienation of the adivasi in their own appears in
its grim reality. The chief minister arrives in his helicopter, delivers a
speech on land rights, and disappears; the film offers no commentary, only
the visuals. Yet it gets home the point.
The film travels to several mining sites, proposed or ongoing. It also
showcases adivasi arts, ancient cave paintings, and the people who live with
them, for whom it is the way to understand their world. There are repeated
references to the the mahua tree, the life giving hill, the water. In each
area, the adivasi are ready to go to any lengths to protect them.
The editing could have been tighter. It is a tad repetitive, which sticks
out especially at the point showing the violent side of the adivasi
movement.
Perhaps a good ending for the film would have been the statement of the
woman whose husband got killed in police firing: "We say we will die for the
land. But is the land being saved by our deaths?" One is left wondering.
downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20070915&filename=news&sec_id=15&sid=10
'Mahua Memoirs,' winner of Silver Conch for the second best documentary film
in the short and animation films category at the 10th Mumbai International
Film Festival will be screened at St Aloysius College here on Sunday April 6
at 4.30 pm. The documentary has been directed by Vinod Raja.
Fr Swebert D'Silva, principal, St Aloysius College will be chief guest.
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'Mahua Memoirs' exposes the decimation of adivasis and their land and
culture due to ruthless behaviour of the corporate world to improve their
business. It shows the urgency of re-examination of present day policies of
the government. In Mahua Memoirs, Saloo, the bard and Thirku Baiga take the
viewers on a journey through the lives of the many adivasi communities who
live in the mountain tracts and forests of the Eastern Ghats across Andhra
Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. The story unfolds both their
life and struggles against the merciless mining, particularly during the
past two decades.
Vinod Raja says that the idea of the film came to his mind from his meeting
with Mahasweta Devi many years ago and from his curiosity to know about the
young children at Bangalore traffic lights who perform to earn a few coins.
The film races back and forth from 2002 to 2006, and across landscapes,
weaving together episodes. The story narrates the story of the tribal
communities, who are the poorest and the most deprived in the country. The
adivasi lands are rich in minerals. The film captures the adivasi's
reluctance to leave their place. Eviction looms large and big businesses
take advantage because the adivasis do not have land deeds. The stage is set
for violence against people as well the ecology.
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daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=45292&n_tit=Mangalore%3A+'Mahua+Memoirs'+to+be+Screened+at+SAC+on+Apr+6
<http://thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=190921>
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