Have you heard Mos Def's song "New World Water"? Its on an album called Black on Both Sides. Great artist. Interesting actor as well.

I often think about the concept of tap water here in America. This particular society has built an amazing and perhaps unparalleled infrastructure of sewage and fresh water delivery systems that wisks away our waste and brings to us an abundance of safe drinking water. And what do we do? We buy it! Its a frickin' compulsion, bottled water. Fresh water is freely flowing into our homes from every faucet and we go to the store and buy it. Or have it delivered. (Interesting system, this one based on capital, innit?) I, too, am culpable. I live in Los Angeles. I buy water. I wrinkle my nose at the slight chlorine odor that emanates from the 'eau du tap'. And then I think of what you've said mr. k.
I think of a girl my age waiting with a bucket for some water that may or may not come, water which may or may not be safe. I try to see through her eyes and I try to feel the beating of her heart. And then in my imagination I invite her over to my place for a visit. We have some tea. I make it from the water from the tap. We laugh at that. Because sometimes life is just so damn funny.

I haven't got an inkling about how your film Paani will look, in terms of production design and other visual aspects, but since it is set in India of the future, I really hope that you will portray India and Indians in a positive light and not fall prey to the typical Western way of portraying India as a filthy country full of poor, half-naked and starving brown people. It's not like there isn't any truth to those images, but it isn't the whole truth either. The India of today is changing and it's changing very rapidly. The India of future will be very different. It will powerful, prosperous and advanced. I hope you keep this in mind while making. It is very important for me as an Indian, because after much huffing and puffing the Indian train seems to have left the station and is moving towards a bright and prosperous future.

A film depicting a bleak future of India, full of slums, poverty and ravaged by a civil war for water, would be nothing short of being catastrophic for India's international image. And especially at this juncture when the image of India in the eyes of the international community is going through a sea change and they are now eager to come and invest in India in order to a get a piece of prosperous future. I know I sound paranoid, may be even silly, but it matters. The Indian train needs all the help it can get to reach its destination because often it doesn’t take much to sully the reputation and standing created with years of efforts. Even the seemingly most unimportant and innocuous things can create huge hurdles.

I therefore request you to be kindly mindful of the above aspects while making the film. In the India of the future, there will be rich people and there will be poor people. But the poor will be relatively poor and won’t be half-naked, starving people living in filthy slums.

Again, please at least give it a thought. A lot could be riding on it.

Mr.k. this seems to be an amazing story. The idea is absolutely novel. And in fact, a director of your caliber only can do justice to it. I mean showing an indian city in 1940s is not an easy job.
The incident that u discussed, that gave birth to the story, reminded me of yet another incident.
I am a doctor, and doing my masters in public health in USA. Last week I saw a movie in which they showed a small village in Africa caught in the web of guinea worm infection. 60% of the population was affected and suffered from disabling disease caused by the mighty worm.
The most stunning thing was that, they were then neglected by all others in the community, and faced a heart hurting social stigma.
The matter of fact is that this disease is spread by cyclops living in water. The people used to drink that dirty water directly from the ponds. By water i mean, a brown liquid through which one can hardly see the bottom of the pond !!
And here in USA we get drinking water in all the taps and that too we use it so lavishly !
So a film with 'water' as the center of story is really worth a curiosity !

keep it up Mr. Director,

regards,
karna.

this reminds me of a bit from the flick Sahara (the only good bit) where the warlord plans on killing people and is opposed by a westerner - he says dont worry , its Africa, nobody cares about Africa.
similarly - the country is boomning, the middle class is forming, the poor people are just pictures and the beggars just get in the way.

A Member of Parliament from Bihar had once said that he felt guilty everytime he flushed his toilet. He knew the trouble that women in his constituency had to face to obtain the same volume of water. But how many of us really care. It is easy to address the feel-good factor by saying the right words. The same guy will leave the tap running while shaving at a leisurely pace. In this context I remember reading the Nobel laureate in Physics Richard Feynman's book 'Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman'. In this book he describes how he prefered to urinate in the sink. He wrote that he opened the tap and made sure the sink was clean after he had used it this way. If he saved something like five litres of water everytime he urinated he must have saved something like forty thousand litres in 5 years. Assuming he urinated four times a day. Not bad. And if one were to multiply this with, say, a hundred million concerned citizens then the total savings would be awesome. Food for thought for urinal designers?

Hello, shekharji.I am from india.I saw ur interview on talk asia,BBC. I just found this website today.First of all,just a line about me,i
am 21 & have just completed my graduation,and have taken theatre training in the past,and finally I am an aspiring film maker like you sir.
I am VERY VERY passionate about ur concept of 'paani'.According to me it is the most titilating concept i have ever heard.i too myself have many concepts free floating in my mind.but i wud discuss that later with you.
Sir if i am allowed to ask, can i please have your mail id,because in this section i am only allowed to write about your films.
In the end i just wanted a little help from you.
Thank you so much for your precious time.I hope to hear from you soon,sir.Good night.

Hello shekar,

This concept has already been unveiled by Mr. K>Balachander in Tamil. The movie name was Thanneer Thanneer. It was a great movie starring Saritha.

Regards,
Murali

Bharat wants to develop rural;
‘Give them power’ is their goal;
in their quest for development,
they please urban establishment;
but end up in just a governing role.

Farmer is ignorant of any global issue;
he has his own view;
he only wants power and water;
but rain god plays truant and makes him poorer;
he ends up in debt and gives Bharat his due.

Some take their lives;
some burn themselves;
women end up taking the burden;
they fetch water, they enliven;
and make their children better citizens.

Bharat is now in a fix;
to go urban or rural or a mix;
they look for mediation;
to meet growing population;
will they succeed or are they in a jinx?

Public, in any case, has to suffer;
after all, they have a life to lead and deliver;
a flyover here, a mall there;
an e-post everywhere;
they remain a mere spectator.

Gopinath S
Bangalore

The rural diaspora

Rural needs power;
but urban is gluttony;
for government, rural is dear;
but urban pays money.

They suffer in silence;
they have no water or money;
rain is in pittance;
way, is there any?

Reform is the key;
thought the intelligentsia;
elections drowned all into the sea;
new ways are, now, the mania.

Devolution is the new mantra;
say, why not try this route?
this is no tantra;
rural folk are not mute.

‘Let’s try social’,
say, the learned;
caravan moves rural;
they have time to spend.

Folk moan, beg and cry;
they give a patient hearing;
the learned say, “try, try and try’;
they keep cajoling.

Folk agree to be more social;
but government is busy tempering;
folk will do anything to be happy and less menial;
Now is the best time for assuaging.

Gopinath S
Bangalore

___________________________

Hy shekhar,

Nice web site. Well its a more of ur personal diary than the site.Really poetic.

Paani is a nice subject. But try 2 c it by d backdrop of rural area. V can c water scarcity in city with our eyes but v cant c d water in eyes as v can c in rural area.People count rich man as how much water they have in their hold. Even politics of community comes in d picture wen a dam or a cannal gets through the tribals.
May be this things r not new 4 u but this is just 2 share it with u becoz i am writing a script on this route. Anyways thx again 4 such a well visulized site.
May God & all the senses b with u !

what if Paani turns thicker....just a thaught!

best of luck for paani

Hi Shekhar,
just thinking about that narration of Paani under the wisdom tree that day, it was awesome. I just wanna spalsh into the creation of 'Paani', u know what i mean.........keep flaoting.

hello sir!
Well paani is the one thing which generates ‘thirst’…..
"Moti bhi apna paani chupane ke liye paani me rehta hai".
From ancient times people have been struggling for paani…..paani gives them different shades but paaani never gets those shades…ram rajya ke samye, ram ki tarha, raven ko paani chahiye tha,aaj har ek neta ko apne sapne(to be a leader,to be at top) ka paani chahiye……magar in sab ke bich pise jate hai vo log jeenhe sach me peene ke liye paani chahiye......
paani ki pyaas har ek manav ko hai......jo pyasa hai uske andar ek aag hai aur us aag ko shany karne ke liye fir se paani chahiye.....

Hi,

I like yr subject "Paani". Its very true world's 1/3 part has but till today we pay for it.

Paani ke liye paisa,
Kudarat ne itna diya uska na koi dam,
aur agar aam adami chahe paani to uska le dam,
Hy yeh paani kaisa.

Please do watch Rahul Bose’s ‘Split Wide Open’. Surprisingly it deals about current issue of mob controlling water in slums through ‘water mafias’ in Mumbai. It’s really an eye opener in to the issue, extending it in your ‘paani’ would be great.