Tamarind tree planted by lady revolutionary finds place at Kolkata movie pageant

A neighbourhood tamarind tree has discovered its solution to the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) subsequent month, with a documentary made on it chosen for a world premiere within the National Competition on Documentary class.

The large tree, which offers inexperienced cowl to its environment, carries historic significance as it’s stated to have been planted about 70 years in the past by freedom fighter Parul Mukherjee when she settled in a refugee colony, now referred to as Vidyasagar Colony, in south Kolkata after Partition. Ms. Mukherjee, a revolutionary, was convicted within the Titagarh conspiracy case in 1935 on the age of 20 and spent 4 years in jail.

The tree was beneath risk when builders lately took over the previous constructing the place Ms. Mukherjee had lived earlier than her dying in 1990. It was saved after a cultural motion was launched in July final 12 months by the movie’s director, Debalina Majumder, who can also be a neighbour. Following the marketing campaign, the boundary wall of the property was restructured to go away the tree standing on land belonging to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

“The tree has been a shelter to animals and birds for many years. I’ve been taking pictures these birds and animals for greater than 12 years. This movie paperwork the vulnerability of city fauna within the face of city redevelopment tasks. Recently in Delhi, we noticed mass mobilisation round road canine. Hope we are going to discover related mobilisation towards chopping timber and making city fauna lose their houses,” Ms. Majumder stated about her 30-minute documentary, titled Friends of Jilipibala, which conveys its message via a toddler’s reactions to varied lives on the tree.

This 12 months, the Kolkata International Film Festival shall be held from November 6 to 13, and Friends of Jilipibala is amongst 10 movies chosen for the National Competition on Documentary class.

“Environmental Studies is now a compulsory topic in each discipline of training. Children proceed to be most susceptible to environmental degradation and have the least means to take motion relating to this. We wished to make a movie that reveals our related existence and a baby’s response to deforestation past her management – as she watched birds, animals and reptiles dropping their habitat on account of proposed growth,” Samata Biswas, the producer of the movie, stated.

“The tamarind tree nonetheless stands, now partially outdoors the boundary wall of the plot that’s going to be redeveloped. We hope that our collective motion has managed to save lots of at the least this tree,” Prof. Biswas added.