India’s rapid expansion has created, and been supported by, a complex series of infrastructural systems. The country’s burgeoning population, record of urbanisation and changing consumption patterns have created growing amounts of waste that demand our attention. There is a need to understand the complex processes involved in the waste we generate and how it has now infringed on the urban commons.
As the film competition continues to expand its exploration into the daily lives in urban India, Nagari 2023 will focus on Reclaiming the Urban Commons through the lens of waste management – its generation, management, disposal, treatment and the individual stories of people that are affected by it. The Nagari films aim to explore strategies and solutions to the various issues that are linked to the theme.
Reclaiming the Urban Commons
Brief
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Shortlisted Entries
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Mumbai: Two short films from Mumbai won a Nagari 2022 short film competition organised by the Charles Correa foundation (CCF). The Nagari short film competition is an annual competition designed to guide and develop films that focus on urban issues specific to Indian cities.
The Charles Correa Foundation, which organised the competition, is an initiative of internationally renowned architect and urban planner Charles Correa. After receiving an initial plan, film-makers whose ideas are shortlisted are allotted a mentor to guide them through the whole documentary process.
The two films from Mumbai that won awards are ‘Pipe Dream’ and ‘The Chaviwallahs of Mumbai’. The first won a Special Jury Award and the second a Jury Commendation award. Both films focus on the struggles around getting a water connection in a city like Mumbai.
Film by Priya Naresh. Palak Patel & Aniket Kolarkar Mentor Sanjiv Shah
Jury Citation:
“अख्खा दिन, अख्खी रात (All Day and all of the Night) is extraordinary in its representation of the monstrous injustice of rehousing people next to a toxic landfill. There has been a masterful use of film as a medium to slip in subtle juxtapositions of politics, of relocated marginalised communities and gender inequality against the backdrop of a growing mountain of garbage. The hopeful, self-told story of the young protagonist is rendered all the more poignant because of the state of injustice that she matter-of-factly accepts.
The film is deeply moving with its evocative visuals of the growing dump of waste while life continues to exist on its edge, reinforcing the gravity of the problem while pulling the viewer in. The film captures compelling scenes of a community’s struggle for procuring clean drinking water as rainwater, running through the landfill, drowns their low-lying houses. The music score is well-woven with the raw imagery to reveal a quietly searing yet poetic cinematic language.”
Film by Maharshi Kashyap, Susmita Talukdar, Zeba Zoariah Ahsan, Biswajit Das, Dhruba Hazarika & Koushik Tamilmaran Mentor: Sanjiv Shah
Jury Citation:
“শিলসাঁকোৰ উদং বুকু (Remember Silsako) is a commendable tale of the Silsaku Beel, a wetland in Guwahati, threatened by the growing needs of the city. The disturbing decline in the state of the wetland, its impact on the communities dependent on it and the attitudes of urban dwellers in its vicinity comes together through striking visuals and beautifully paired soundtrack.
Driven by a fictional narrative, the film shows the various stakeholders that are intertwined with the wetland, from the flora and fauna, illegal residents along its edges, the Government and the people who seek to exploit it. Through its ironic narrative style, the film depicts the contradictions and complexities of the relationship between ecologies and the development of new settlements as the city expands.”
Film by Suraj Katra, Jai Mati, Prachi Adesara & Sitaram Shelar Mentor: Avijit Mukul Kishore
Jury Citation:
“Pipe Dream is commended for its compelling story of the impossible task of obtaining a legal water connection in the settlement of Siddharth Nagar in Mumbai. It presents an ‘other’ Mumbai, and the communities that get pushed to the precarious margins of the city by municipal authority, apathy and sheer neglect.
Jai Mati’s role as a community mobilizer with immense patience helps narrate the journey of bureaucratic delays and the reams of documents required to get access to water in this urban settlement. Following Jai Mati through the day, we see him collecting paperwork to be submitted, following up with government officials and then setting up inspection meetings with the officials and the people of Siddharth Nagar. The film reaches a hopeful conclusion, when we learn that Siddharth Nagar will finally be given a legal water connection after 30 years. Pipe Dream is a story of hope and patience, tied together with powerful imagery and a compelling protagonist.”
Film by Akanksha Gupta & Gopal MS Mentor: Avijit Mukul Kishore
Jury Citation:
“The Chaviwallahs of Mumbai is acknowledged for presenting the disparity in water distribution in a city. The Chaviwallah is used as a metaphor for the various factors that decide whether an individual or community will be given or denied their right to a water connection. Steering through topics like distress migration and political pressures determining access to water connections, the film uses a striking theme to address injustice, showing the disparities in access to water that the city perpetuates through its structures of governance and water management.”
Film by Niki Nirvikalpa, Sugantha Priscilla & Prasanth Kumar K Mentor: Bina Paul
Jury Citation:
“The Many Journeys of Water is acknowledged for amplifying the voices of women entrepreneurs involved in the sanitation and water treatment industry in Trichy. The film presents itself as a reportage into the lives of two desludging operators and how they negotiate navigate their roles in the city, negotiating social, political and economic relations of power.”
Film by Priyadharshan Anand, Nagendran Arumugam, Arunmani Vasu, Dishon C Prince Mentor: Arjun Gourisaria
The film explores the tale of the Kosasthalai river –narrated by Kumaresan, a native fisherman, voicing for the land, the people, its flora and fauna. Kosasthalaiyar is Chennai’s largest river, sprawling over 7000 acres. The intervention of Government & private industrial ambitions on its ecological corridor has created an environmental crime scene depleting the existing natural fabric. Adani’s proposed port expansion will completely be destroying the remains of every river based and coastal ecosystem that’s left.
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Located on the southern bank of the Ganga, Patna, the capital of Bihar, is emerging as a ‘smart’ city with a massive influx of modern infrastructure. Close to the city are the riverine islands of Ganga, known as the Diaras, which contrary to the city, struggle to access the basic infrastructure to meet their everyday essential needs. The film focuses on the Diaras and their unique relationship with the Ganga and highlights the contrast between life at two opposing ends of the same river— Diaras and Patna. It shows how the development of permanent concrete structures on the river edge directly threatens floods in low-lying areas like the Diaras. Hence, the film questions the infrastructure-heavy development that most cities are witnessing, their disastrous impacts on the fragile natural environment and how Diaras can pave the way for a more ecological and harmonious form of development.
अख्खा दिन, अख्खी रात – All day and all of the night
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The film is about the relationship that a 13 yr old girl shares with water while living next to Ahmedabad’s largest landfill. This poorly planned area has contaminated borewell water and a poor water distribution network. We explore the struggles of procuring clean drinking water, especially during the monsoons when the rainwater running through the landfill drowns their low-lying houses.
नावाडी (Boat rider)
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This film is a story of a “Navadi ” named Sadashiv Ambi, who is a boat rider and rescues people trapped in floods in Kolhapur and Sangli of Maharashtra. Along with Ambi navidi’s individual story, the film talks about how unplanned urban areas are making cities flood prone. Every year water reaches the interior of the city, damaging the already crumbling infrastructure of the city. The once prosperous princely state built on the vision of Shahu Maharaj, is now on the edge of extinction because of man made disaster coupled with climate change.
दगड आणि पाणी – Rock and water
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Dagad ani Paani aims to address the real and metaphorical invisibility of groundwater – one of the first difficulties in understanding and managing the biggest resource of freshwater available to us. We imagined the film to emerge from an enabling process that reduces the distance between art/research & its social relevance/applications. After discussions with Rajula Shah – our mentor – we conducted workshops on groundwater with children from two different contexts of caste (and class).
With children we shared current research work being conducted on groundwater and children asked us questions that really gave a direction to our reflections and the filming process. Through observations, drawings and questions children reflected on social disparities and conflicts that they encountered.
Dr. Himanshu Kulkarni, a leading scientist, generously adds to what one of the children says about illegal pumping of groundwater. We stayed with troubling questions that children pose, the questions point to the anxieties that they are growing up with.
The Many Journeys of Water
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The journey of water doesn’t end at the toilet when you flush it. The journey of ‘wastewater’ or sewage, as it is now known, begins here. This is a story about the wastewater of a town in Tamil Nadu, which, perhaps, is the story of wastewater across many Indian towns, and the lessons we can, perhaps, learn.
66% of Tamil Nadu relies on septic tanks to store their wastewater, which needs emptying, or desludging periodically. This is done mostly by private entrepreneurs, known as desludging operators. We follow two women, Parameshwari and Aravalli, who are desludging entrepreneurs in Tiruchirapalli.
These subterranean, out-of-sight aspects of water are mostly outside the consciousness of society, but are essential for the smooth running of our cities and towns. Thanks to this invisibilization, conversations about sanitation are not mainstreamed. The film is an attempt to make visible these hidden stories.
Pipe Dream
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Pipe Dream is a film about Jai Mati, a resident of an informal settlement in Mumbai, and his work navigating the complex process of applying for a water connection with the city authority. Home to nearly 1000 people, Siddharth Nagar does not have access to the city’s official water. Residents buy water from shops, transport containers from employers’ houses, and hire private water tankers to fulfil their water needs.
Owing to the overwhelming and intimidating nature of the process, many residents have accepted this reality and hold no hope for a legal water connection which in many ways is tied to ideas of citizenship, belonging, and legality. Since 2015, Jai Mati has painstakingly collected documentation, met with authorities, dealt with internal politics, educated himself and other residents on the constitutional remedies and dedicated himself to the goal of obtaining legal water.
The Bhavi Project
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The ‘Bhavi project’ documents the changing narrative of open wells as physical systems of water storage and their association with communities. The film is developed on a fundamental premise, ‘What is the future of cities without open wells?’ and the same is enquired through the lens of Vaddar community. It builds an enquiry towards sustenance of open wells and its impact on the well digging profession.
The narrative is envisioned as-
Wisdom and history: Establishing the well digging community, their association with wells and communities in the pasts
Soil and sweat: The process of understanding the complex ground water system and its construction in public and private spaces.
The slow death: The ground water system is under continuous pressure and exploitation in terms of contamination, increase in borewells and excessive pumping.
Making the invisible, visible: Water in open wells is visible and hence is looked after. The film is a lens through the lens of these traditional systems in today’s ever changing context. How do we safeguard the ground water systems and its people?
This can contribute to restoring the ground water levels and also support the well digging profession.
শিলসাঁকোৰ উদং বুকু – Remember Silsako
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Silsako is a wetland on the outskirts of Guwahati, Assam that has been dwindling in size because of haphazard development activities over the past few decades. The wetland in picture has been providing various sources of livelihoods for the people and many of them are still dependent on this resource.
With eviction drives that displace people and their homes, it also displaces hopes and aspirations. Climate change and mindless human activities surrounding the beel has reduced the life of this wetland.
It has once again ignited the debate, whether development should take precedence over ecology and environment. Silsako evokes a poignant memory and this film is an attempt to revisit a space that will determine the future of the city.
Olam
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Kosasthalaiyar is Chennai’s largest river running through the northern corridor of the Metropolitan City, sprawling over 7000 acres. People living along the river stretch share a strong bond with water and the ecosystems sustained by it. Ennore – Pulicat wetlands, The Ennore Creek and the Kosasthalaiyar River are natural shock absorbers that mitigate flooding during rains or tidal surges, check salinity. They are key problem solvers to Chennai’s water management and flood control.
The intervention of Government & private industrial ambitions on the ecological corridor of Ennore has created an environmental crime scene depleting the existing natural fabric. Adani’s proposed port expansion will further cripple the region, completely destroying the remains of every river based and coastal ecosystem that’s leftover. The film explores the tale of the Kosasthalai river –narrated by Kumaresan, a native fisherman, voicing for the land, the people, its flora and fauna.
The Chaviwallahs of Mumbai
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The film attempts to construct a hydraulic portrait of Mumbai, a city steeped in a dense network of piped politics. The film looks at the water distribution system in Mumbai and the various people or factors that determine where the water flows in the city and who receives it. Prodding at a cardinal question who are the gatekeepers in an otherwise centralised water distribution system in Mumbai.
Moving Mountains centres around issues of dependency, recharge and social-ecological realities shaped by groundwater. It will also dwell on the consequences of coupling land rights with water rights. It aims to explore what this does to disparity in distribution as well as recharge.
Antarjala
Antarjala is about Bengaluru’s changing relationship with water has been a story of urban growth, and also one of intimate change in a community’s relationship with water. The proposal aims to dive into understanding ‘scarcity’ as more than just a natural phenomenon, but also a socially mediated political process.
Navadi
Navadi is the story of a boat rider who rescues hundreds of people trapped in the flood every year in Kolhapur. The proposal explores the evident reasons of flood as unplanned urbanization and lack of disaster management response.
पानी का खेल (Waiting)
पानी का खेल (Waiting) seeks to represent water access issues in Mumbai as more than just that. It depicts the all-consuming process of obtaining an official water connection as a resident of an informal settlement, and through that, raises questions of legitimacy, right, and belonging.
फासले (So far, So close)
फासले (So far, So close) charts instances of disparities in distribution attempting to make palpable, its far reaching consequences. It also aims to unravel the contradiction of distances associated with the ‘urban organism’ – which demands being fed with people & resources from far & wide.
डूबती ईंटे (Sinking Bricks)
डूबती ईंटे (Sinking Bricks) looks at a family living in a small brick house, surrounded with water on all sides during the rains. This water contains wastewater and industrial waste from the colonies, garbage and rain water which all gets stagnant here. The proposal is about the daily struggle of this family and the many people living here.
நீ ரின்றி அமையாது (Nothing without Water)
நீ ரின்றி அமையாது (Nothing without Water) looks at how water is the most essential component that sustains human life. But we’ve come a long way from thriving around a river’s existence to disrespecting its presence and contributions. This proposal narrates the story of exploitation of Ennore’s rich Creek and Kosasthalaiyar river due to excess encroachments and discharges by government and private industrial ambitions.
শিলসাঁকোৰ উদং বুকু (Remember Xilxaku)
শিলসাঁকোৰ উদং বুকু (Remember Xilxaku) is about the ecosystem of Xilxaku Beel, an important wetland in Guwahati is being destroyed to make an artificial concrete eco-park. I met the fairy of the Beel, Jol Kuwori, who was crying helplessly beside her destroyed home.
The Chaviwallahs of Mumbai
The Chaviwallahs of Mumbai looks to explore the idea of what makes water move in this city. Who has access to it and who doesn’t. While the keymen control the flow of water by opening and closing of valves, who are the real chaviwallah’s that influence the flow of water in this city.
Bombay Hotel
Bombay Hotel explores the relationship that children of the Bombay Hotel area in Ahmedabad share with water and its accessibility while living next to the city’s largest garbage site.
The Bhavi Project
The Bhavi Project documents open wells as traditional water systems and their changing needs, through the lens of Vaddars, the traditional well-digger community in Bengaluru city. Through engrained stories, the film builds an inquiry towards the sustenance of these open wells and their adaptation to cater to increasing water needs and changing lifestyles.
Aragol
Aragol looks at the life of the migrant artisanal coracle fishing community whose economies and livelihood solely depend on the Cochin estuary. It will illustrate the paradoxical relationship the community has with the city and its water body.
Bypassing Diaras
Bypassing Diaras attempts to document the unique relationship between the residents of Diara and the river Ganga in Patna. Diaras are riverine islands formed between the natural levees of the river as a result of silt deposition. In recent years, there has been a massive push toward infrastructure building, particularly projects concerned with urban mobility. But Diaras continue to face mobility challenges due to annual flooding and exclusionary planning.
The Many Journeys of Water
The Many Journeys of Water is an exploration of the many journeys of water—from fresh to black and grey waters—and the journey of a few women who are intrinsically linked to this journey of water.
Mridula Ramesh is the author of the critically acclaimed The Climate Solution and the newly released, Watershed, and the founder of the Sundaram Climate Institute, which focuses on waste and water solutions. She is an active cleantech angel investor, with a portfolio of over twenty start-ups. A graduate with distinction from Cornell University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Mridula worked at McKinsey in Silicon Valley and is the executive director of Sundaram Textiles. She is part of the board of trustees of World Wildlife Fund, India, and chairperson of the board of governors at National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh. She lives and experiments in Madurai in a (nearly) net-zero-waste home with her husband and two children.
Addressing various factors associated with Water and Urbanism
Vishwanath S
S. Vishwanath is a Civil Engineer and an Urban Planner. He has 34 years of experience in the water, waste-water and sanitation sector helping design rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge, wastewater recycling and ecosan systems. He is an Adjunct Professor and teaches a course on the theme – “Water” at the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India. He is a Trustee with the Biome Environmental Trust and a Director at Biome Environmental Solutions, an Ecological Architecture practicing firm. He is a member of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance a global alliance of people and groups working towards sustainable sanitation. He is a member of the International Water Association. He wrote a weekly column called Waterwise for 12 years for The Hindu. He has been a member of various expert committee which helped formulate the Rainwater harvesting policy and law for Bengaluru, the Waste-water policy for Karnataka and the Water Policy for Karnataka, drafted by the Karnataka Knowledge Commission. He was the Secretary General of the International Rainwater Catchment Systems Association for 4 years. He was the Advisor at Arghyam and for the India Water Portal for 10 years
Hussain Indorewala
Hussain Indorewala is a teacher and urban researcher. He teaches planning theory, housing and humanities at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture (KRVIA) in Mumbai. His research work has focused on urban history, infrastructure planning, politics of land and housing, and sustainable transport. He writes frequently in the popular press on urban development, planning and policy. He is the founder partner of the Collective for Spatial Alternatives (CSA), an action research and community planning collective.
Sarita Fernandes
Sarita Fernandes is a coastal, small-island state and maritime policy scholar, with her work and specialisation on land-use changes of coastal zones, conservation of olive ridley sea turtles and coastal disaster management. She also works on ocean governance and marine resource management of maritime zones and stakeholder climate equity into domestic and intergovernmental policies. She studies spatial distribution of different ocean sectors on coastal commons, policy, community-conservation and case-studies of conflict within ocean economic sectors using the same zones.
She has completed her Masters in Public Policy from St. Xavier’s College (Mumbai) and her Post-Graduate Diploma in International Relations and Foreign Policy from the Pherozshah Mehta Bhavan-Department of Civics and Pol. Science in the University of Bombay. Her Masters thesis in public policy included a policy-analysis of the impact of coastal policy (CRZ notifications) on Mumbai’s coastline and her second thesis involved a stakeholder feasibility framework of UNCLOS (United Nations Convention of The Law Of The Sea). Sarita is based out of Goa and New Delhi and is the founder and managing trustee of the Goa Sea Turtle Trust and the Ocean, Coastal and Ecological Alliance Network (O.C.E.A.N).
Over the last few decades, we have seen how rapid population growth, high densities, poverty and high differentials in access to housing, public services and infrastructure have led to an increase in vulnerability, especially in India’s urban centres.
Previous editions of Nagari have looked at the state of housing and the challenges of livelihood that exist within this rapid urbanisation. This year, Nagari will focus on a single idea of how stories in urban India are tied to water.
WATER IN URBAN INDIA
Click on the image to know about the winning entries.Click on the image above to learn more about 10 Final films.Click on the image above to learn more about the shortlisted entries
Film by Sanchay Bose, Pramathyu Shukla, Shubham Sengupta and Rudraksh Pathak Mentor Arjun Gourisaria
Jury Citation:
‘Taal Betal’ is laudable as it uses the strength of film’s visual storytelling to reveal the devastating impact of urban development on water bodies and the lives that depend on them. Through an investigation of Jabalpur’s lakes, we experience the impact of pollution on the livelihood of the Singharia community, originally water chestnut farmers, who have now turned to fishing — which is also then affected by the lack of oxygen in the water.
It is a very well-structured and legible film, a documentary that recalls the fact that Jabalpur’s lakes were made for its citizens, a progressive urban planning move. The film calls out to viewers to take more care of our waterways and the layers of life that depend on them – including our own.
Film by Avadhoot Potdar, Akanksha Gupta and Akshata Dalvi Mentor: Arjun Gourisaria
Jury Citation:
‘The Golden Fish’ is commendable as a testament to livelihood as ‘disruption’ in an urbanscape. It illustrates, quite beautifully, how Goa – with its unique geography and society – has been negatively impacted by the floating casinos and their influence. The insights into the life of the young North-Eastern women who work in the casinos are sensitive and evoke questions of “localness” in a cosmopolitan state like Goa.
The use of opulent visuals of the casinos and their branding, as contrasted with disembodied voices for locals, is representative of the way that the industry has now taken up space that once belonged to the city. The women who work on the casino boats are objectified, the locals are ignored, and a kleptocratic system perpetuates exploitation and alienation. The boats themselves are operated by people that are from a different part of the nation, servicing alien crowds that come in from other states and countries, a disconnect between the two worlds. The film also illustrates issues that can be reversed, through advocacy and policy, exemplifying film’s ability to raise public awareness.
Film by Atish Indrekar and Ruchika Chhara Mentor: Sanjiv Shah
Jury Citation:
‘Darudi’ is commendable as it does the hard work of giving voice to a community stigmatised as a criminal tribe by the colonial administration, a burden they carry until today, and of opposing views around the hidden world of distilling alcohol in Chharanagar, in the city of Ahmedabad. It is an uncomfortable story, in the best tradition of documentary filmmaking, that forces viewers to confront historic injustice, an inheritance from colonial times that still continues to circumscribe and constrain. The narrative, largely through song, is intricately crafted and inter-woven with interviews to convey a sense of anguish and disempowerment.
‘Darudi’ provides an intimate experience of how people born into and living in this state of injustice must grapple with the quandary of doing ‘right or wrong’ while pursuing the right to a livelihood that takes care of one’s family and children.
Film by Aakash Chhabra, Snigdha Sharma, Vedant, Om Prakash and Koushik Tamilmaran Mentor: Rajula Shah
Jury Citation:
‘An Ordinary Day’ is acknowledged for presenting a deeply personal and moving take on the livelihood crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The melancholic tone and the stark aesthetic of the yarn recycling facility were incredibly effective. While there was a single voice and a single story, the film spoke for so many more people, across cities in India who faced this crashing devastation in livelihood, migration and economic chaos.
Film by Aman Jajoria and Simran Raswant Mentor: Bina Paul
Partnership Below Par is a documentary that explores the story of four delivery “partners” as they navigate through the millennium city of Gurugram (previously known as Gurgaon), questioning how the city facilitates their ability to earn a living along with their stakes in this “partnership” within the gig economy.
By Bhawna Jaimini and Moin Khan Mentor: Sanjiv Shah
Shot through the lens of Moin Khan – a young rapper and an aspiring filmmaker, the film explores the challenges, struggles and triumphs of him and his neighbours in Govandi, Mumbai. It looks at how the Muslim youth are negotiating within their homes, where cultural norms and financial limitations dictate their aspirations, as well as outside in the city – where spatial boundaries dictate not just their present but their socio-economic future. It attempts to bring out how opportunity and aspiration intersects with cultural and spatial identity of people of Govandi, dictating their present and future.
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A Marathi rap music video about the issues faced by citizens at the hands of exploitative builders in a nexus with the government, providing them woefully inadequate housing facilities. Language: Marathi with English subtitles
A City Within A City
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Confronting the communal nature of the city of Ahmedabad by focusing on the neighborhood and houses of Juhapura, one of India’s largest Muslim ghettos.
Beyond Four Walls
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A film that explores the relationship between access to livelihood and housing, through a comparison between Parry’s Corner and Kannagi Nagar, two neighbourhoods in Chennai.
Udta Banaras
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An attempt to document displacement and resettlement due to the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, through the experiences of Rinku Kannaujia, a former resident of the Dalit Basti near the temple. The film looks at his experience of displacement while questioning what development means for a culturally rich city like Banaras
Fish out of Water
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Exploring the changing realities of the Koli community of Mumbai. One of Mumbai’s native inhabitants who live along its coastline have seen it all, from the 7 islands to the bustling and ever growing metropolis that the city has now become. Shot across three Koliwadas, the urban fishing villages in which the Koli’s reside, in Khar Danda, Madh and Versova, we have tried to mirror the Kolis as they navigate through their daily lives, from the sea where they go to catch the fish early morning, to the fish auctions at the end of each day and the time in between where life has other things in store for them.
Water Water Everywhere
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In Guwahati city, flash floods occur every year, the reason being the Brahmaputra river flowing beside it overflows. Meanwhile, people struggle for drinking water every day in this same city. This reminds us of the famous lines by Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Water water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”!
Adrushya Niwasi
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The film unpacks the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in highlighting the prevalent housing inadequacies for the migrant in the city of Mumbai.
Jar jar ghar
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A documentary about century-old buildings on the verge of collapsing and the generational tenants who live here with nowhere better to go. With a glimpse into the rehabilitation policies of the state of Maharashtra, the film tells multiple stories of families in south Mumbai who are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Day One
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Debajit, a young man from a village in Lower Assam arrives in Guwahati with the hope of a better livelihood. The city unfolds to him as a space etched on a discursive landscape and temporality; bearing signs of the past, present and future. His journey in his day one of the city pings him with a feeling of displacement-emotional as well as physical
Game of Homes
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A film which portrays speculation on real-estate in Goa, questioning the affordability of housing in the state, depicted through a game of Monopoly.
Pradeep Dalal directs the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Arts Writers Grant Program in New York. He was co-chair of Photography at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.
sankalp meshram
Sankalp Meshram is an Indian Director, Editor, Writer and Producer, working in Mumbai since 1994. An Alumnus of FTII, Pune, he has won Five National Awards and one IDPA Award. He has made many notable films on Architecture, specially on the Architecture of Charles Correa, Music and Dance apart from having made an award winning Fiction Feature Film ‘Chhutkan Ki Mahabharat’.
Snehanshu Mukherjee
Snehanshu Mukherjee has over 34 years of experience in the field of architecture and planning. He also has over 28 years of experience of being an academician. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.
Shilpa Ranade
Shilpa Ranade trained in architecture at CEPT, Ahmedabad and did her graduate work in Cultural Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Shilpa has co-authored an influential book on women and public space in Mumbai called “Why Loiter?” published by Penguin Books India in 2011.
Paromita Vohra
Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker and writer whose work focuses on gender, feminism, urban life, love, desire and popular culture and spans many forms including documentary, fiction, print, video and sound installation. She has directed and written many films, ‘Partners in Crime’ in the year 2011 is one such film.
Sanjiv Shah is a film editor, producer, and filmmaker engaged largely with documentaries dealing with social issues, and exploring forms of film. As a part of the exhibition The State of Housing (2018) in Mumbai, he directed a video looking at the housing crisis in India over the last 70 years.
bina paul
Bina Paul works mainly in Malayalam-language films. She has over fifty editing credits and has directed four documentaries. Her first editing work was in 1985 on Aravindan’s documentary The Seer Who Walks Alone and her first feature film work was on Abraham’s Amma Ariyan in 1986. Paul won her first National Film Award for Revathi’s Mitr, My Friend, which had an all-woman crew.
Avijit Mukul Kishore
Avijit Mukul Kishore is a filmmaker and cinematographer, working in documentary and interdisciplinary moving image practices. He’s involved in cinema pedagogy as a lecturer and curates film programmes for prominent national cultural institutions.
Rajula Shah
Rajula is a Poet, Filmmaker & Visual Artist. Her practice emerges through close collaboration with people, their histories & environments exploring boundaries of fiction/non-fiction through New Media. Developing new strategies for the study & practice of Cinema in changing contexts is a concern with her.
Tarun Bhartiya
Tarun is a political activist, documentary imagemaker and Hindi poet from Shillong.
The first edition of the Nagari Short Film Competition addresses the subject of Housing Adequacy in Urban India. It attempted to not only use film as a medium to narrate the issues, but really to expand an understanding of the subject and extend its representation and relevance in India.
housing adequacy in urban india
In 2020, the Nagari Short Film Competition focussed on the question: “How could one tell the story of housing adequacy in urban India”?
Click on the image to learn more about the winning entries!Click on the image to learn more about the final films!
Click on the image to watch the join Award Ceremony for the Nagari Short Film Competition 2020 and Z-axis: You and Your Neighbourhood Design Competition
This blogs explores the key elements of adequate housing as recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Film as a medium has played an important role in generating awareness on social issues. This blog is a list of films that address housing and issues related to housing infrastructure in India. It is not an exhaustive list but a short collection of films available in the public domain.
Click on the image to learn more about the Nagari 2020 Short Film Competition Brief
“An equally important facet of the right to life is the right to livelihood because no person can live without the means of livelihood.” — Excerpt from the unanimous judgement of The Supreme Court of India in Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation, 1985.
This year, Nagari will address the subject of people and livelihoods in Indian cities. It will attempt to not only use film as a medium to narrate the issues, but really to expand an understanding of the subject and extend its representation and relevance in India.
“An equally important facet of the right to life is the right to livelihood because no person can live without the means of livelihood.” — Excerpt from the unanimous judgement of The Supreme Court of India in Olga Tellis v. Bombay Municipal Corporation.
In 2020, the Nagari Short Film Competition focussed on the question:
“How could one tell the story of housing adequacy in urban India”?
India has the largest number of urban poor and landless people in the world. According to the 2011 census, approximately 13.75 million households, or approximately 65 – 70 million people, reside in urban slums. Homeless people, based on the 2011 census, are an additional 1.8 million. The numbers are staggering. In some cities, such as Mumbai, those residing in slums represent around 50% of its population. Housing, and more importantly adequate housing, is in a state of crisis in India – a case reinforced by the migrant exodus that we witnessed in Indian cities in March 2020, as a result of a national lockdown imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nagari 2021 addresses the subject of people and livelihoods in Indian cities in an attempt not only to use film as a medium to narrate the issues, but really to expand an understanding of the subject and extend its representation and relevance.
Film as a medium has played an important role in generating awareness on social issues. This blog lists films that draw parallels to this years’ subject of scrutiny. The list of course is not exhaustive, but is a collection of films – suggestions made by the mentors of Nagari Short Film Competition 2021 and the Charles Correa Foundation.
Sanjiv Shah is a film editor, producer, and filmmaker engaged largely with documentaries dealing with social issues, and exploring forms of film. As a part of the exhibition The State of Housing (2018) in Mumbai, he directed a video looking at the housing crisis in India over the last 70 years.
Bina Paul
Bina Paul works mainly in Malayalam-language films. She has over fifty editing credits and has directed four documentaries. Her first editing work was in 1985 on Aravindan’s documentary The Seer Who Walks Alone and her first feature film work was on Abraham’s Amma Ariyan in 1986. Paul won her first National Film Award for Revathi’s Mitr, My Friend, which had an all-woman crew.
Avijit Mukul Kishore
Avijit Mukul Kishore is a filmmaker and cinematographer, working in documentary and interdisciplinary moving image practices. He’s involved in cinema pedagogy as a lecturer and curates film programmes for prominent national cultural institutions.
Rajula Shah
Rajula is a Poet, Filmmaker & Visual Artist. Her practice emerges through close collaboration with people, their histories & environments exploring boundaries of fiction/non-fiction through New Media. Developing new strategies for the study & practice of Cinema in changing contexts is a concern with her.
Deepa Dhanraj
Deepa’s documentaries and writing that span a period of forty years, engage with questions related to women’s status, political participation and resistance. Her films have been screened and awarded at national and international film festivals, and she has also served on the Jury at National and International film festivals.
