Dweepa

During the days of my engineering course, a film by name - Dweepa directed by Girish Kasaravalli, made news. Actress late Soundarya had produced it. It was shot in the Malenadu region of Karnataka with lush green forests, large bodies of water as its back drop. I had also read that the rainy scenes were shot in the natural rain. Dweepa also won the Swarna Kamala (Best Film). I wanted to watch the film since then.Finally I watched it on Doordarshan in its Award films programme late night around one month back.

The film is very good, it deals with the condition of people who are set to loose their houses in the backwaters of a dam being constructed. The film also draws lots of parallels betwen the Nature and human relationships.

**Spoiler warning**
There are mainly four characters in the film. Nagi played by Soundarya. Nagi's husband is Ganapaiah played by Avinash. Nagi's relative Krishna played by Harish Raj and finally Nagi's Father-in-law. Nagi's family lives in a place on the banks of a river.

There livelihood gets threatened by a new dam being constructed down stream, making their place coming under the backwater of the dam. All the villagers are being compensated to relocate to a safe place. But Nagi's Father-in-law does not agree to shift to a new place whatsoever. Krishna who used to be in Bombay comes to stay with them.

Because of Krishna, there is some trouble in the relationship between Nagi and her husband. Krishna leaves the place taking away the only boat Nagi has. Now Nagi and her husband become locked in the village which has become an Island in the backwaters. With the thundershowers continuing, there is always a danger of water entering the house. But Nagi shows great spirit and determination by staying awake whole night to protect herself, her husband, the cattle from the water. The film continues...

Though Dweepa is one film, but it has lots of stories interwoven inside it. The condition of people being displaced by dams, the relationships between man and wife troubled by a third person, making each one them to live like an Dweepa (island), and in the end, we can see hope personified as Nagi. The major part of the film deals with the parallels between the events occuring around them in Nature and the human minds becoming islands.

But I liked the last part of the film where Nagi never gives up hope, does what ever she can do to overcome the situation unlike her husband who just hopes but does not do anything in that regard. Nagi shows that with hope, determination to achieve the task and working towards that, one can overcome any challenge.

The film leaves with many questions, for which the viewer has to find the answer.