The film is directed by Nila Madhab Panda (Director of "I am Kalam"), starring Kunal Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Saurabh Shukla and Gulshan Grover.
“I am Kalam” director, Nila Madhab Panda brings you an social satire
on the scarcity of water.
Funded by One Drop Foundation, Montreal and Produced by
Eleeanora Images and One Drop Foundation, ‘Kaun Kitney Paani
Mein’ is Nila Madhab Panda’s most ambitious film yet and it deals with
the most critical challenge facing the 21st Century – WATER!
Kaun Kitney Paani Mein
Synopsis :
A satire on water set in the rain shadow areas of Orissa where water
becomes currency in our daily life.
A black comedy based between two villages fighting over a water
reservoir since few decades.
The story revolves around how the King of the Higher village plots a
way to get water from the lower village. He plans with his son to
impregnate the daughter of the Sarpanch of the lower village so that
they can get the water in return.
While this is being planned the boy actually falls in love with the girl
leading to a whole new twist to the tale.
STORY :
It’s a story of the two warring villages, Upri (The Exalted) and Bairi
(The Outsiders) . Initially there existed only one village, known for its
powerful kingdom, and great economic and social status. Bairi was
created as a place of banishment for those who went against the king.
Thirty years back, a love between the 2-caste lead to the banishment
of ‘the workers’ from Upri to the newly created village of Bairi.
However, having amassed skills in water management and farming,
the people of Bairi started afresh , saved water and prospered over
time.
This all changes when water becomes scarce in Upri and in
abundance in Bairi thus reverses the balance of power between the
two villages.
Water becomes the new currency in Upri as it has none of it while Bairi
has it all. This scarcity forces the king to use his only trump card and
that is his son Raj ( The Prince )
He cons with his son to go and impregnate the daughter of the Bairi
village Chieftain ( Sarpanch) so that he can demand for water when
they come to beg for marriage.
What the king has‘nt factored is the twist it the plan. When Raj reaches
Bairi things are not the way they seem and he plays his own cards.
The Film takes a satirical look against the backdrop of a traditional love
story but all set in a realm where water is as good as money. The film
resides in the genre of satire comedy, a rare-to-come-by treatment in
Indian Cinema, with and even rarer plotline aimed at a positive social
outcome.
Produced with both scale and grandeur, with multi-location shoots in
the heart of Orissa, with grand music, action and dollops of romance-
this film will tickle the heart and tackle the mind with a firm grip of the
water scarcity issue.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT :
Social Cinema is a misconstrued word when seen from a developing
country’s perspective and the need to make impactful cinema is
assumed to be one that has to show the depravity and pathos in the
viewer’s face and make them squirm. This might be an option but I
have always believed in making films that carry important universal
messages without being cloaked in heavy philosophical preaching.
Having grown up in east India (Odisha state) and having lived with
water scarcity for three decades; this crisis is tangible and one I have
grown up with.
The only thing that kept my fellow villagers and me survive this crisis
were jokes and stories and the imaginative world that seemed full of
everything. Much like everywhere else, this escape from realism was
an effective staple diet.
So when I thought of this film, first thing I thought was to make it to
laugh on a serious human issue, yet when the audience walk out they
are laughing but in a awry kind of way and actually trying to deliberate
of what they saw. This is a universal issue and very soon there will
come a time, where power will lie with whoever has water. I’ve set this
film in Odisha because this region is true to what the world is going to
witness soon. And also because this satire, this ability to laugh at ones
plight in the face of self-induced disaster is something I have learnt
from the people of Odisha. This is what makes the treatment of ‘Kaun
Kitne Paani Mein’ unique - The strong local favours and humour that
will have the audience chuckling and yet shaking their head in thought
at the cinemas.
CAST
Kunal Kapoor,
Radhika Apte,
Gulshan Grover
and
Saurabh Shukla
A film by Nila Madhab Panda
Producer : One drop foundation and Nila Madhab Panda
Music on: Zee Music
Creative Producer : Supratik Roy
Executive Producer Bidhu Bhushan Panda (Biju)
Director of Photography Subhranshu Das
Story Nila Madhab Panda & Deepak Venkateshan
Screenplay Deepak Venkateshan
Dialogue Rahul Singh
Chief Asst Director Anuj Tyagi
Associate Director Santosh Kumar
Editor Deepika Kalra Biren Jyoti Mohanty
Production Designer Tariq Umar Khan
Sync Sound & Sound designer Sameer Patra
Publicity Consultant : Protiqe Mojoomdar
Music
Krishna Beura – (Rangobati – Rangobati)
Style Bhai – Subhi ( Ho Naa )
Bishakh- Kanish – (Chala Murari)
Costume Designer Barnali Rath
Background Score Mangesh Dhakde
Choreography Arvind Thakur
Visual promotions : Chin2 sing (chin up films)
