Rating: na Presentor: IDream Production Producer: Shripal Morakhia Director: Rajeev Patil Story: Vishwas Patil Music: Vijay Narayan Camera: Amalendu Chaudhary Cast: Meeta Sawarkar, Pramod Pawar, Kishor Kadam, Santosh Juwekar, Shashank Shende, Chinmay Mandlekar, Dhananjay Mandrekar, Narayan Jadhav, Smita Tambe, Hemangi Kavi, Sharvani Pillai, Prashant Patil, Nandinee Jog, Madhugandha Kulkarni, Girish Salvi, Ravi Tayade and Upendra Limaye, Sai Tamhankar. Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

In our country, while describing a ‘farmer’, the image that comes to our mind is often that of a hapless, debt ridden face full of despair searching for a pesticide bottle to consume and kill himself. In spite of having nearly 60 per cent of India’s population dependent on the agricultural income for their livelihood, we are yet to find freedom for such people.

The latest five year plan says 78% of India’s farmers are small and marginal. They obviously cannot derive any benefits from economies of scale in their small, fragmented holdings. It is only because they are still unorganized sector. Without institutional access to modern technologies or financial services they cannot make investments to improve productivity of their lands. Poor infrastructure and connectivity to power, telecom and roads further compound their competitive disadvantage.

How can we expect an average Indian farmer to become a successful entrepreneur in such an environment ?. In Maharashtra the situation is no different. In fact, it is the worst in some of the villages. Writer Vishwas Patil has rightly described the tragic tale of one such village, where the politicians exploit the villagers with their divide and rule policy. Sajay Patil who gave a cinematic form to this story by developing it and ‘Jogwa’ fame director Rajiv Patil directed it to convey the message to the society and also open the eyes of our selfish politicians with their latest film ‘Pangira’.

‘Pangira’ is actually the name of this village, where all these catastrophic events take place. A young woman Sumitra ( Meeta Sawarkar) enters this village with the support of a retired teacher Appa ( Pramod Pawar) and starts her studies on the management of water resources and Agricultural growth in that village. She soon discovers that the kind of traditional crop grown in that village needs more water and in the scarcity of water and dependency on rains it becomes difficult for the farmers to grow their crop. The right and left hand (Kishor Kadam & Santosh Juvekar) of the local MLA ( Upendra Limaye ) play their dirty games to capture the local village body with the help of their few supporters. They keep on exploiting the poor families by creating infightings among them leading to division of lands and families.

Sumitra with the support of few sensible people living on the upper side of the village dares to challenge the local body and their decisions, when she sees the situation going out of control. She suggests the farmers from the village to grow the crop requiring less water. She also arranges distribution of free saplings with the help of district collector. But, when the entire village take the onions for sale to the market, there is another scene created by the bulk buyers. It comes to the notice that the local MLA has played his hand-n-glove game with bulk buyers; where even Police cannot do anything. The situation again goes out of control, due to the aggressive farmers turning desperate for their rights and police firing is ordered. The sacrifice by some of the villagers finally help achieve peace and prosperity.

‘Pangira’ is a realistic truth of what is happening today in the state of Maharashtra. The film clearly exposes the corrupt system and at the same time educates the farmers, suggesting them to remain united and be self sufficient; learning more and more about latest technologies, rather than becoming dependent on local politicians. Very cleverly the film has shown how the ruling and opposition party people gain their advantages at their cost. It is a social film with a clear timely message, throwing light on today’s burning situation in the state.

Meeta Sawarkar has played the central character with total commitment. She gets very good support from Pramod Pawar, Chinmay Mandlekar, Smita Tambe, Shashank Shende Shravani Pillay and others. Chinmay and Smita playing the helpless husband and wife are simply superb. Smita in particular displayed her real skills through not only emotions but also through her natural body language of a village woman. The way she sits in total squat position anxiously waiting for the result of the bore well drilling, is one of the best scenes in the film. The climax scene showing the agitation of the farmers in the market yard has also been captured well through the lenses of Amalendu Chaudhary. Music by Vijay Narayan goes well in the background for this kind of a film. Rajeev Patil has excelled once again with his skillful direction.