A special screening for documentary lovers of Odisha was organised for Shuka Asuchi, a movie developed on the plot of illegal mining and fight of a community against illegal mining on April 26 at the IDCOl Auditorium here. Around 200 documentary movie lovers that include social activists and media persons watched the two-hour documentary.
The film revolves around four friends, Sandeep, a rich man’s son who believes that success is about accumulating wealth and power. Buddha, with a middle class family lineage, has an aspiration to become a professor. Ranjana is a sociable smart girl with an ambition to become a journalist. Samaresh the chief protagonist is a socialist at heart, a rebel who does not conform to established norms. Samaresh contests the definition of success put forth by Sandeep and Buddha. He argues that ‘success’ is not about being wealthy, earning money or travelling overseas - that he considers as mere ‘personal achievements’. Budha and Sandeep fail to agree with Samaresh’s notion of success.
The friends decide to meet again after a few years down the line to assess and vindicate their definitions of success. After completing his studies, Samaresh returns to his village, Chandanpur. A major portion of Chandanpur was established some two decades back as a resettlement colony for all oustees of a hydroelectric project. In no time, Samaresh realises that the quintessential village he once dreamt of had undergone major transformations. Mining had changed the face of his quaint village from being a simple uneventful place to a rough, industrial and highly polluted area. Farmers had vanished and so had their farm lands. On one hand, mining had swallowed vast tracts of agricultural land forcing farmers to look for other options. On the other, it had rendered fertile farm land unfit for agriculture. In both situations, land had become useless, a burden rather than an asset for villagers.
Reduced livelihoods options in the village forced many to migrate to other States in search of work and those who stayed back lived a miserable life with no strength and fire to oppose the monopolizing ways of the mining company. Samaresh finds a friend in Mehmood (an ex-army personnel) who introduces Samaresh to this non-resistant generation that had progressively transformed into a flock of ‘sheep’ - completely reliant on the one-rupee rice bestowed by the Government and the mercy of free liquor provided by the mining company. Samaresh learns that the youth no longer pursued their traditional livelihood - farming and farm land had been relegated as valueless liability that could be sold at will making illegal land transfer easier.
In all this, the company was noticed to have taken over the responsibilities of the Government - the company had in fact replaced the Government so far as provision of basic services was concerned. The health conditions in the village had also deteriorated with TB emerging as the principal killer. Schools had no teachers and therefore no students or vice versa. Children had found a new source to keep them busy - as labourers in and around the mining area to supplement family income instead of going to school.
Samaresh meets Shukabou, the widowed mother of his childhood friend Shuka. Shuka was a labourer but had the audacity to challenge the company’s ways of tricking workers paying them lower wages. Samaresh comes to know that Shuka is missing for some time. The sudden disappearance of Shuka has made her mentally unstable. She roams around the village in search of her son; consoling herself that Shuka would return one day…. ‘With her belief that Shuka will come back to her one day … Shukabou continues her struggle against the company. She sees her son in Samaresh - the same strength to resist the power of the company. She is convinced that Samaresh will fight and settle the battle that her son Shuka had started with the company.
Samaresh, contests the battle with a difference - he mobilises the otherwise inert and timid villagers to voice their resistance and fight against company owners. The company retaliates with vengeance eliminating all forces that ally with Samaresh. He soon realizes that people are unable to resist against the company as they are dependent on it for almost everything - health, education, water, micro-capital, so on. He fights his subtle cards to demonstrate to people methods to reduce their dependence on the company.
In a sudden turn of events, Budha joins Samaresh’s battle. With Buddha follows Ranjana bringing along with her the strength of the electronic media to unsettle the company. Ranjana helps in filing a story against illegal mining and the mine owner-Government nexus that hits national media. This story ignites and pressurises the Central Government to commit to initiate a special investigation through a central commission not only in the State but in other parts of the country where such cases have been identified.
The battle plan is purely legal - they resort to constitutional means, take the protection of law, and exercise their right to freedom of expression. The media story has its serious ripple effects in the State politics/Government. There is panic and there is assertion. All this mediated action forces the Government to initiate an independent inquiry along with commitment for active support for the central commission.
Public hearing takes place with utmost security and transparency. The villagers decide against the setting up a steel plant in Chandanpur. The finality comes with people triumphing over the powerful company. The story unfolds alongside the revelation that Shukabou makes about her son - who is no more. She describes how Shuka was killed by the company goons; a secret that she holds close to her heart lest people should lose courage to fight the battle for their existence. In order that people continue to muster strength to fight against injustice; she would reiterate to herself and the world around her that ‘Shuka will return…will return one day’ - instilling in them the hope and confidence to fight injustice!’
Buddha and Ranjana are about to return … as the train whistles, Shukabou cautions ‘that with victory in one village, the crusade against injustice must not stop’. The struggle must continue till the last Shuka returns. The train leaves the station as Shukabou and Samaresh look on…. The entire story thus not only has a smell and tastes of Odisha, but also gives a commentary on the contemporary issues and struggles of the marginalized to overcome the ordeals set up by large scale illegal mining.