Interesting watch: Heart-warming short film from Odisha on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Bhubaneswar: Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha that inspired many, including Microsoft co-founder and business magnate Bill Gates, was fashioned last year from a soul-stirring true story blended with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship campaign, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a burning theme, being used by many filmmakers as a backdrop to deliver social messages on the development of society and the country. A silent short film from Odisha, titled MUNKI: The Polythene Girl is one such attempt to sensitise the citizens of the country to participate and take responsibility of keeping the nation clean.

Conceptualised and directed by JR Jeevan, this silent short film portrays a little bespectacled girl shouldering the onus and playing her part to make her country dirt-free.

“I wanted to make an entry in the Swachh Sankalp Se Swachh Siddhi Short Film Competition organised by the Government of India this year, but missed the deadline. We shot the entire film in a day and I cannot thank my team enough for working at a breakneck speed to beat the deadline,” said 20-year-old Jeevan, who is also a theatre artist from Bargarh district.

Though he couldn’t register in the competition on time, he uploaded the short film on YouTube in a channel called Bibartana where one can find such videos depicting Odia culture and burning social issues of the state. This is Jeevan’s second production on Bibartana, the first one being Dhi. He is currently working on a Sambalpuri project titled, Putla, centred around the case of farmer suicides in Odisha.

A Swachh Bharat Short Film Festival was organised by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, in association with National Film Development Corporation last year where the film Murga of Katyayan Shivpuri emerged winner.