Summer 2007 a film with Difference.  Interaction with Makers

Indian Farmers woes have now reached alarming proportions. The suicides have touched the figure of more than a lac in the last 10 years as per the Government statistics. Majority of these deaths are attributed to public and private debt under which the farmers are reeling. Years ago, Shri Bimal Roy had made Do Bigha Zamin a story of a small debt ridden farmer whose role was played by eternal Late Shri. Balraj Sahani. India was itself a poor and undereducated country then. However, despite being perceived as the biggest matter of national importance, the issues of farmers condition and rural poverty has not connected with the big wigs of Bollywood. The issue itself remains limited to fourth and fifth page of dailies.

Summer 2007 is a film made by fresh talent from Bollywood, Mr. Atul Pandey is the producer of the film, directed by Mr. Suhail Tatari and written by Mr. Bijesh Jayarajan. All three are newcomers and have chosen to align with a socially relevant burning issue in their first film. Is this attempt going to shake the conscious of Bollywood in general and our society in particular.

The interview with film makers :-

Question (Mr. Ramesh Pimple : How the film was conceived?

Answer (Suhail Tatari-Director): We were keen to make a film with youth who is struggling in the web of urban development phenomenon. Who is going through an identity crises with no clue about rest of the country, their co-citizens, the income and wealth disparity that has come to fore due to lopsided economic activity. We thought of reading the lives in the countryside from the point of view of reckless urban youth. When we started writing the film, it was co-incidental that farmers suicides was on peak and so was consumerism and both were being written about.

Mr. Bijesh Jayarajan-Writer: Today the big social issues are isms, Terrorism, Communalism, etc. and plight of rural India has gone un-noticed. The issue definitely was disturbing and it was difficult to sideline it while writing.

We read books and articles written by Sainath, Jaideep Hardikar, Dr. Divendra Sharma, Bhaskar Goswami, Aparna Pallavi etc etc. We read articles about individuals, families and villages affected by debt trap. We did not visit the villages deliberately as our story was being told from the eyes of rich urban capitation fee college students. We knew that the stories of the villagers would be so heart wrenching that it would have been impossible to ignore it and it would have hurt the method of story-telling that we had adopted.

Mr. Atul Pandey: Successive governments (NDA and UPA) have spoken about relief for families of suicide victims and farmers who have lost their crops due to some eventuality. We have seen and heard of instances where cheques of less than hundred rupees have been offered as state help to farmers. Another round of relief package is announced
recently. The results are yet to be seen but in the interim period till such time the benefits reach the farmers, I think it is extremely important for us to realise that the poor of the country need to be seen with sympathy. They are in crisis and they need to be helped. You cannot be proud of development when lacks of farmers have no alternate but to kill themselves. When farmers lose the land to the money lenders. How can we call such situation an achievement and celebrate. It is a no win situation.

We had hoped that a mainstream film would help give voice to the farmers who were at the verge of ending their life, who are living under the shadow of death and fear, reduced to a destitute & slaves. It is yet to be seen how we are going to handle the problem of money owed by farmers to the private money lenders.
Role of Private money lenders

Mr. Suhail Tatari Director: What we realized that the government had banned money lenders but they were smart to re-invent themselves. There was mushrooming of private money lenders in villages in form of Trading Companies, Fertilizers and seeds supplier companies, grain procuring agents who were advancing indirect/input credit on items
like seeds, pesticides and fertilizers and charging almost 40 % interest on it and once farmer is trapped in their net, he will never escape in his life time, the kind of bonded labour he will become, he will hang himself or surrender his land to the companies, which has well structured network in the villages.

Mr. Atul Pandey Producer : The character of Sankhya is played by Sachin Khedekar is inspired by the 2006 noble peace prize winner Mohammed Yunus from Bangladesh who successfully implemented micro credit scheme in Bangladesh and given relief to thousand of debt ridden families. Sankhya has a non-violent solution of micro-credit.
He propagates small loans without guarantee. He also wants to involve womenfolk in the exercise. Despite the fact that this a rural theory but it is extremely progressive and broad based.

Writer Mr. Bijesh Jayarajan.

Obviously the oppressor which is the money lender would not appreciate the existence of anyone like Sankhya and with his clout and power, he would try and eliminate the man with a solution.

The role of local Doctor Mukesh Jadhav. He is an OBC doctor who came on his rural posting years back but unlike most decided to stay back and try and help.  Mukhia played by Ashutosh Rana became interesting as he cleverly dragged the five medical students into the issues of the village. He knew that the solutions to the problems would only come from outside as locally there is no help available. Mukhia is angry at the way things are poor are getting poorer and rich getting richer.

Mr. Bijesh Jayarajan writer: we could not have left aside the issue of rise of naxals. You just cannot brush them aside as terrorists; they have to brought into the mainstream. They are counter product of violence raj of money lenders and failure of the political system in the rural India which gives Philips to Naxalism and Red corridor is a reality today.

Mr. Suhail Tatari Panchayat Raj system prove to be failure to resolve the crisis impounding in the villages over the issue of farmers plight and failed to offer any relief to suicide driven farmers and in fact money lenders have systematically taken over the Panchayat Raj to use to their benefits and it is indeed a sad story.

Mr. Atul Pandey We shot extensively in Wai, Bhor etc., we stayed in villages and used the villagers in shoot and we found them quite sincere and helpful. They used to give the shot & go back and silently wait for the next shot, probably they were serious that the film is about them and their support to make film is essential.

Sikandar, Gul Panag , Yuvika Chaudhary, Arjun Bajwa, Alekh Sangal, Ashutosh Rana & others, spent time with villagers, ate their food Jhunka Bhakar. No tantrums, No so star ego, whole unit was deed serious and involved in the project.

Entire cast including Sikandar, Ashutosh Rana, Gul Panag etc. had read the script before agreeing to the film and they become part of conscious efforts to give voice to the farmers plight.

We did face bureaucratic hassles, our shooting camera and equipments were not allowed to pass the highway at Pune by the authorities, we had to cancel an outdoor shoot.

Note by Mr. Ramesh Pimple

Today there are very few films made that are issue based or can be termed good cinema. The mushrooming of multiplexes across the country has killed small theatres, the tickets of small theatres used be Rs.
10 & Rs. 20 and today tickets for multiplexes start with Rs. 100 and ends with Rs. 500. It means films are no more to common man because if he/she earns Rs. 2,000/- p.m. can they afford to spend Rs. 1000 going to cinema. Government has given tax rebate to multiplexes and those who get benefited are big film production houses and big builders. When Sarkar Raj and Mere Baap Pehle Aap got released they occupied the entire screening space at the Multiplexes leaving hardly any space for other films and a meaning full and socially relevant film like Summer 2007 gets timing slot of 11.00 pm, 10.00 am, and such unreasonable timings.  Who will go to see the film at such odd hours and the film eventually gets killed. The films promoted by big banners are screened during prime Times and viewers are forced to see this cinema whether it is good or bad.

It also leaves a big question mark that whether meaningful cinema, or issues based cinema is no more required. The Government also become responsible for killing good cinema because there is no mechanism to ensure that good cinema gets proper release. We know that multiplex theatre owners, started exhibiting Marathi film in morning time slot, when Maharashtra Government made it mandatory to screen the Marathi films. If summer 2007 does not get its due platform, than the younger generation on who the film is targeted at will have to wait for another such effort to see and understand the reasons for disparity of economic growth.

Ramesh Pimple

Media  and film activist
MUMBAI