Jamshedpur’s Sourav Vishnu documenting problems hidden under layers of assurances

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, Feb 18: Young and dynamic documentary filmmaker, Saurav Vishnu, whose debut work, ‘Tailing Pond’ drew critical acclaim at the Academy Award selection screening, is all geared up to unleash two more celluloid posers, ‘Nine months in Chatikocha’ and the tentatively titled ‘Tata’ shortly.

‘Nine months in Chatikocha,’ deals with the trials and tribulations of villagers of the area whose land and houses were taken over by UCIL. Wastes that included health hazards were dumped and strewn along vacant fields, houses were bulldozed – pleadings of the villagers fell on deaf ears. The Chatikocha villagers were literally thrown out on the streets, their sources of income from the fields were pushed inside the pages of folklore.

When they gathered voice to demand compensation, the UCIL authorities and government agencies heaped assurances but till date, nothing had materialized. The ‘taken for a ride’ villagers still await their compensations and compassionate-ground service in the company that continue to remain under the inanimate assurances. UCIL officials and their government counterparts who had made assurance offerings a part of their routine, came and went through transfers but the fate of Chatikocha villagers remained unchanged. Some have been forced to settle down elsewhere but the assurance of alternate settlement remains in the doldrums of assurances. But the struggle for rights continues as the second generation and the initial third have taken up cudgels that have yet to elicit response.

Chatikocha resident Bharat Tudu who has lived through the struggle for basic rights, said, “Our village became dumping grounds for the UCIL from 1967. Not a word was exchanged between the UCIL authorities and us. Even the government agencies turned a blind eye. Our dwellings were bulldozed more than 20 years ago. We struggled against this inhuman attitude. All we got through these years of struggle were bags of assurances from the UCIL and government authorities. Today, we are a scattered lot and never know when we shall again reside in the same colony together as we did when we were at our peaceful and happy village in Chatikocha.”

The second venture, tentatively entitled ‘Tata,’ is about civic rights of citizens. A few more scenes remain to be canned. But knowing Vishnu through his ‘Tailing Pond’ it is expected that both documentaries would be hard-hitting posers that will tug at the conscience.