Born to middle class non-political parents in Mumbai in 1964,Jharna Anurag Singh claims to be a rebel in her own right. She unveiled Kosi Katha,her film on the Kosi floods,at The American Centre recently. The film was premiered in association with the NGO Kriti to celebrate World Environment Day. News of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai disturbed Singh and that is when she decided to pack her bags and head to the districts in Bihar where last years Kosi floods claimed several lives. Singh says,I am unwilling to make connections that are obvious to me,between terrorism and floods and between uprootment and the so-called developments. The film tells the story of people who lost their livestock,land and homes to the Kosi Maharani,which affected five districts,35 blocks,33 lakh people and 9.97 lakh livestock. Travelling across the districts of Supaul,Saharsa,Madhubani and Madhepura,Singh and her crew captured the lives of the farmers who have nothing to claim as theirs. Anguished people hold the authorities responsible for their condition as they still await relief. Singh,who considers herself a city-bred romantic with a critical eye,says,I travelled to rural India for the first time in 1992 to de-school myself of my urban myths. An alumnus of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan,Delhi,who did her post-graduation and M.Phil from Pune University,Singh traces her interest in filmmaking to her school days,when she participated in theatre. In 1992the same year she got an offer to pursue a PhD from France and declinedshe made her first film,Angan Manch. Then came Maya Nagri,a film based on the lives of child labourers in Delhis streets,who come to the Capital from Bihar. As she sought to capture peoples hardships,Singh herself had to go through someshe was put behind bars once and her cameras were destroyed. As an independent filmmaker,she feels there is a lack of distribution networks for documentaries. But what really disturbs Singh is the fact that she cannot feed all the hungry people who stared at her as she filmed them.
