Filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda’s Kadvi Hawa is a dark tale on the ill-effects of climate change starring Sanjay Mishra, Ranvir Shorey, Tillotama Shome and Bhupesh Singh. Its grim trailer had Gulzar pen a poem to highlight the issue that became a rage on the social media platforms, setting the perfect backdrop for its release on November 24.
The story in contrast as essayed by Ranvir’s character of a loan recovery agent from Odisha and a 70-year-old blind farmer from Bundelkhand played by Mishra gives a sneak peek as to how water, in excess in one part and paucity in another, has changed the landscape at both ends.
The free-flowing plot hinges a lot on Mishra’s character whose blind man act has shed light on the complexity of the human ties in the wake of such calamities, showing the magnitude of such a problem that is slowly gripping our existence. “It wasn’t effortless but quite challenging. I can attribute it to my mental preparation. I had to give my best to say a lot even when I was silent,” says Mishra, whose searing performance is the high-point of the film.
In Odisha, the wrath of the ocean has slowly eaten up villages, while the frugal rainfall in Bundelkhand has led to barren lands, farmers’ distress, rising debts and farmers’ death, both the extremes of climate change affecting ordinary lives.
Panda, who had directed I am Kalam, says, “I have witnessed both drought and cyclone in my state. In 2006, I saw a hand pump in the Bay of Bengal, and I was shocked. I got to know that it was in the middle of the village once upon a time. But the sea along the coastal Odisha had engulfed that hamlet and many others.”
The film carries old-school charm but uses a new-age storytelling. The simple frames go on to portray complex human emotions, and the well-etched characters do their bit to take the story forward. Swaying the audience in favour of the bitter wind, Mishra says, “My character in Aankhon Dekhi had said that he can’t believe what he can’t see.
But in Kadvi Hawa, my character is foreseeing something which he wants the sighted to see too.” He adds that he had in some measure tried to raise the bar for himself with this role. “The roles of AK Hangal in Sholay and Naseeruddin Shah in Sparsh as blind men are the ultimate ones. I have just tried in my small way,” he quips.
Produced by Dhrishyam Films, the film had got a Special Mention at the 64th National Film Awards earlier this year.