Sampark Kranti Calling…
Marathi Feature Film
Written by- Sanjay Sharma
Brief Synopsis
What happens when a backward remote village that is still waiting for electricity gets its first Mobile Phone instead? Probably the same that a hungry infant does when he gets a toy instead of milk. He starts playing with the toy forgetting his hunger.
‘1 Missed Call Sampark Kranti’ is a light-hearted, slice-of-rural-life social satire set in a tribal village of interior Vidarbha during 1990s – The period when Maharashtra was going through significant socio-politico-techno change.
Power equations in the State and Centre had turned topsy-turvy. A major Power Project fiasco triggered the dark decade of loading shedding in which hundreds of villages lost their electricity supply indefinitely. Our Kesgaon Tanda being one of them.
Engineer Kamane is deputed from Pune to fix Kesgaon’s Electricity. Shrewd officer knows his punishment deputation is just a sham in face of the elections. There’s nothing for him to do here, nor does he want to do anything. He rather finds weird ways to amuse himself. Not wanting to serve in the village, he gets a ‘mobile phone’ to facilitate his transfer back to Pune.
Like that hungry child, villagers go crazy for this new gadget forgetting their primary demands. Seeing this the Village chief in collusion with Kamane, gives-up the uncertain issue of Electricity and cashes on the latest sensation making Mobile Phone his new Election agenda. While most people believe ‘Live the moment, don’t lament’, a few powermongers misuse this attitude to ‘Distract and Rule’.
Using mobile phone as a metaphor between haves and have-nots, the film intends to satirize the leapfrog progress while attempting to give an experience of the digital revolution from rural India’s point of view in an engaging way that is mostly realistic, at times grotesque and sometimes fantastic.
The Show Must Go On..
Premise – When the very first mobile phone came to a backward village which had no electricity, the villagers were taken over by utter curiosity which led them do bizarre things; initially to get the glimpse of it and later even to have an experience, forgetting their basic issues. Using mobile as metaphor the Script constructively critiques an irony of Leapfrog Progress evoking a thought-provoking question on the right path to progress.
Treatment – The Film intends to show in a funny way through ‘slice-of-rural-life’ treatment, how arrival of mobile phone in a backward village creates ripples in their mundane life. So much so, that they forget their bigger problems – electricity which is the fuel of mobile phone.
How the helpless village administration then misuses the villagers’ innocence to their advantage forms the crux of the story. Mobile phone in its initial days, owing to its exorbitant call rates, became a status symbol that separated the haves and have-nots. It could be anything, from bread to bed to car to house. Mobile also represents the haphazard progress our society is going through, where getting a mobile connection is easier than electricity or water connection.
Synopsis –
This story is set in the year 1999 when Mobile Phones had just begun to take the masses in India by storm. The place is Kesgaon Shindi, a backward village of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, a State that ironically had the highest growth rate in India during that period.
This village has nothing. Water is rare. Roads are absent. Electricity supply to this village has suddenly been withdrawn. Maharashtra went through its worst Power Crisis during that period, owing to the infamous Enron Disaster.
Frustrated villagers force their administration to look into this, and coincidentally due to Elections an MLA pulls some strings and an MSEB Engineer is deputed to the village. This Engineer Mr. Kamane, has done some minor corruption and faces this punishment deputation.
The Electricity Board’s office, housed in an abandoned room originally intended for a dispensary, comprises of Kamane Saheb (Junior Engineer), a peon Bandu and one lady Kanta Bai who comes for cleaning, twice a day.
Saheb, belongs to this very region by birth but after working for several years in the metro city of Pune, he finds this backward place dull and dirty. So he has been trying for his transfer back to Pune and even offers bribes to his bosses. This transfer is the reason that Saheb gets mobile for himself. Thanks to his sharp mind and foresight, Saheb also knows that power is not going to come to this village in near future and he is just there to transport the lies (to the villagers) that his superiors push to him. All this makes him desperate for an escape like prisoners desire.
Since there is no work in the office Saheb spends most time reading the crime supplements of local newspapers or taking naps as Bandu keeps fanning him. But when Kanta Bai comes to sweep, Saheb enjoys ogling her and to facilitate that he makes Bandu run for tea. That’s an open secret of this office.
Bandu also enjoys fetching tea because of Varsha, a girl who stays opposite to the tea stall whom he is trying to set.
The day when Saheb brings mobile phone to the village, people are awestruck. All gather outside the office to see the miracle of Information Technology. And it not an easy show for them, because in those days mobile calls were exorbitantly charged and even incoming calls were expensive. So the villagers have to wait, beg to Saheb and pray to God for a chance to see the mobile working. During this wait they also come to know various features of the mobile phone which is an absurd novelty for them, like when you call an ordinary phone next door you pay STD call but when you call a mobile phone in distant city it is a LOCAL call.
After a real long patient wait they are overwhelmed to witness the functioning of the Harbinger of Communication Revolution also called Sampark Kranti. There is rustic innocence in their behaviour that creates comedy with compassion.
When the mobile phone rings for the first time, the scene becomes a spectacle as people leave their work on hand and rush to witness it. There are no signals in Saheb’s office and he needs to go to a nearby hill to receive calls. As he runs to the hill to complete his call, a human trial follows him through the narrow by-lanes of the village. Some people drop nature’s call and even coital opportunity to attend the call of Sampark Kranti.
The fad doesn’t end here. Villagers then plan to experience it and when they know Saheb won’t pay exorbitant money for their pleasure they contribute like Ganeshostav.
The Sarpanch, village administrator, accidentally realizes that villagers have forgotten Electricity and other basic needs in wake of the mobile phone.
The Script further builds on this, where on one end, Saheb is struggling to move out and goes on lying to the Sarpanch under rapidly changing dynamics of the Enron-MSEB Equation and on the other hand people doing unusual things for mobile experience – Bandu wanting to send his love to his girlfriend through mobile, a dying man’s last wish is to speak on mobile.
Amidst this the office equations Saheb-Kanta, Bandu-Varsha, Saheb-Bandu take dramatic turns and Saheb uses that to his advantage and secures his transfer at expense of poor Bandu.
But when Sarpanch shares his apprehension and asks Saheb to wait for a few days and leave when Electricity comes, Saheb tells him the truth of the sham and advises him to instead ride on the mobile wave and win votes, if that is the trend. Distract and Rule, is the mantra he gives to the Sarpanch.
Sampark Kranti shifts into top gear racing ahead of other fundamental necessities. Free talk-time, Easy loans from Path-Pedhi (Rural Saving Bank) to buy mobiles, 24X7 Battery Charging Station etc. come in as Election Promises.
When the village kids play truant at the school to enjoy mobile, their teacher Deshpande, realizes the sham and raises them against it. The Village Administration plan a Big Function to bid farewell to Saheb and a Welcome to Sampark Kranti, but the school children land there to stage a Satyagrah..
Do we need to wait for the Electricity to have mobile?
Don’t we buy a bike even when there are no roads? Is there a right path to progress or can it go in haphazard fashion?
The Climax of the film leads to triumph of truth; when Saheb changes for good and decides to do best what he can and give a message of positivity.