There are no shortcuts to change and one campaign cannot lead to a radical makeover. The key to development lies in consistency,sustainability and in hanging on long enough to watch it stir, says 29-year-old Ajay Saklani. He speaks with confidence that comes from a firm belief that is based on his experiences. It is also this conviction that drives him to make documentaries that voice matters of concern. If his first documentary Dyalee projected the unsual way Diwali is celebrated in Himachal Pradesh,for his second documentary Upaasmar - The Taste of Hunger,he travelled deep into the dense forest cover of Maharashtra to the tiger reservoirs of Melghat,Amravati,300 km from Wardha. The small district,which comprises 370 villages,first made headlines in the early 80s,when it was found that more than 500 children died of starvation/malnutrition there every year. A former media assistant at Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University,Saklani was introduced to the miseries in the region by one of his students who showed him photographs of the tribals in Melghat. I made my first trip to Melghat in 2009. It took me nine hours from Wardha to reach on my bike, recalls Saklani,adding that several trips followed. After ample research and regular weekend visits to the villages,where he met the tribals,he decided to make a documentary on them in January 2010. By that time,Saklani had given up his job and was focusing on Melghat. Since 1984,the area has seen electricity three times first in 88,when Rajiv Gandhi visited,then 99,when Vilasrao Deshmukh was there,and last in 2009,during Sonia Gandhis visit. There is negligible healthcare,no teachers,no education facility,no road connectivity or water resources. People are solely dependent on agriculture and that too is dependent on the rains, says Saklani,who will be screening the film at various colleges across Chandigarh during the next few days. Guest lectures have also been planned at School of Public health,PGI,and School of Communication studies,Panjab University. What also made Saklani comfortable in Melghat was the fact that the village shared similarities with his ancestral village,Mandi,in Himachal Pradesh. Twenty-five years ago,my village was exactly like Melghat. We never studied,but built our school from scratch. I saw television for the first time when I was 11 and learnt Hindi when I was 17. There are a millions of Melghats out there and it is up to us to salvage them and give them a new life, he says. The filmmaker,who also freelances with PTC and MH1 Punjabi Music Channel,and makes documentaries for NGOs,believes that cinema is a great driver for change. His film has also helped in receiving government support for the Dhadak Mohim Programme,which aims to curb malnutrition. There have been no deaths in the five villages in the last five years. The lack of political will and process of change is slow and frustrating,but one has to keep pursuing the cause, says Saklani,who wants to use his documentaries and films to educate the masses. He also hopes to use this medium to revive Pahadi cinema and films that represent culture and traditions of hilly regions like Jammu and Kashmir,Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. I have the chance of creating a new cinematic culture. People watch what you give them,so why not do something meaningful, says the filmmaker.
