Bangalore City
Corporation Pourakarmika collecting garbage in JP Nagar
might not be the most dramatic opening sequence in a film. But it works in GS Bhaskar’s Nagara Nyrmalya a Kannada short film on solid
waste management.
About 12 minutes long,
the film could just be what Bangaloreans need to understand community
participation in waste management. And not the least because it evades a
typical documentary approach. It is centers around the character of Santhimmi,
who chronicles a day in the life of a Pourakarmika. “The film also focuses on
the community’s role in waste management,” says Leo Saldanha from Environment Support
Group (ESG) an NGO that researched for the film.
The unique cast of
Nagara Nyrmalya is also a winner with noted artistes like Ramesh Aravind, Anna
Ramesh, and Vyshali Kasaravalli
wife of filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli
facing the camera.
“The actors didn’t charge anything, they did the film voluntarily,” adds
Saldanha. The film succeeds in depicting urban attitudes towards waste disposal,
best summed up by a 12-year old character, who says: “After all, waste is
waste.”
With modest visuals, tight editing and a tighter budget, the film goes
about tackling the attitude problem, elaborating on simple methods like
segregation of waste matter. While being a hazard to nature, the role of waste
as a source of manure is also brought up.
All in all, Nagara Nyrmalya - a Grassroots media and ESG production
–keeps it short and simple. ESG estimates that thanks to local cable networks
like ICE TV and Siti Cable, about half
of
But the NGO’s efforts have been in vain so far, even as they knock at
the doors of
Quite strange, when you consider that the film is the product of
collaboration with the BCC and the department of Forests, Environment and Ecology.