Landing On Earth:
If not mainstream Bollywood, at least through streaming platforms urban India is getting a look at how rural India functions. The Panchayat seasons and a few others like it, present a humorous and sanitized picture of Indian villages; a new show, Mitti Ek Nayi Pehchaan (on Amazon MX Player), presents a slightly more realistic portrayal.
The show directed by Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Kumar Dwivedi, sees a mofussil region that has access to modern technology but is reluctant to change set ways; young people dream of going to cities, because agriculture is no longer financially sustainable for small land holdings.
The graph of the show is a bit like the movie, Swades; in this one too, an educated man, with a successful career, returns to his farming roots and brings about change in the mindsets of the villagers.
Raghav (Ishwak Singh) works for a Mumbai advertising company where he is a “star employee” when he gets news of his grandfather Sudarshan’s (Yogendra Tiku) death. His work, and his relationship with Stuti (Diksha Juneja) has kept him so busy that he neglected his family in the small north Indian village of Dol Chhapra.
He goes to the funeral of the man who raised him, while his parents were away in the city, and learns that his grandfather had taken a bank loan which he was unable to repay. He was being harassed by the collection agent Girdhari (Sharat Sonu), which could be the reason for his fatal heart attack. Sudarshan did not want to take money from Raghav to pay off the loan, he wanted to do it from his own income from the farm. But his experiments with “unnat kheti” (modern farming) encouraged by the government’s agriculture department had failed.
Raghav’s guilt makes him stay back in the village– though he cannot keep up with the work from home schedule due to connectivity problems and eventually loses his job. With the support of his grandmother Renuka (Alka Amin) and two farm workers, and childhood friends, Baiju and Maahoo (Pranjal Patheriya, Piyush Kumar), he decides to make a go of the farm to fulfill his grandfather’s wishes. But initial failures are shattering—if it’s not a nasty village head Sujan Singh (Devasish Mishra) arranging to destroy his crop, it’s an act of nature.
The hand that is offered to pull him out of the swamp is that of a bureaucrat, Kratika Sinha (Shruti Sharma), one of the good ones, who genuinely wants to help the villagers, and also knows all about modern architecture, profitable crops, polyhouses, etc. She has also given up a lucrative city career to work in the village, so Raghav finds a kindred soul.
The series often dips into government propaganda, Krishi Darshan-like lessons in new farming methods, and agri-entrepreneurship, but to its credit, does not lose the thread of the emotional threads that pull Raghav from despair to hope. Sujan Singh had taunted him that there was a big difference between belonging to a village and just visiting; after a few months, Raghav loses his attraction to the stress and speed of city life, enjoying the “sukoon” of the village, the warmth of family and loyalty of friends. The joy of seeing a flower bloom, feels like an achievement bigger than impressing a client with glib marketing slogans.
Ishwak Singh’s earnestness, and the rustic energy of his mates, keeps Mitti engaging, even when it starts to get preachy. It makes a case for giving farmers the respect they deserve, just like other professionals like doctors and engineers. The “desh badal raha hai” rhetoric is a bit overstated, when farmer are still dying by suicide all over the country, but Raghav’s struggles show that the situation can improve, with the right guidance. It’s a pity that those for whom the message is meant, probably won’t get to see the web series.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
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