| TITLE OF THE FILM | Towards Self Governance (Disha Swarajyachi) |
| DIRECTED BY | Virendra Valsangkar |
| LANGUAGE | Marathi (English subtitles) |
| YEAR | 2023 |
| COUNTRY | India |
| DURATION | 53 minutes |
| SPECIAL NOTE | Kolkata Premiere |
PRINCIPAL CREW
| WRITING | Milind Bokil, Virendra Valsangkar |
| CINEMATOGRAPHY | Ninad Gosavi |
| EDITING | Virendra Valsangkar |
| LOCATION SOUND | Nilesh Shinde |
| SOUND DESIGN & MIXING | Dhananjay Sathe |
| MUSIC | Kedar Divekar |
ABOUT THE FILM
Mendha-Lekha, a small and remote Gond tribal village in Maharashtra put forth a novel example of how people can govern themselves with consensus and make productive use of their forest. This is a story of the struggle of the villagers who collectively took efforts to protect their surrounding forest, becoming the first village in India to acquire forest rights. It helped the villagers to attain financial prosperity and freedom. The story of Mendha-Lekha signals that democracy prevails where people are awakened and make their own decisions. Decentralised governance leads to realising the dream of a republic.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Virendra Valsangkar is a civil engineer who turned to filmmaking out of passion for the medium. He received a National Award for ‘Vishnupant Damle: The Unsung Hero of Talkies’ (2012). Virendra has edited National Award-winning Marathi feature films ‘Devrai’ (The Sacred Grove) and ‘Ha Bharat Maza’ (India is My Country). He received the International Jury Award for ‘The Unfolding White’ at the Ekotopfilm Festival in Slovakia.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“The novel experiment of Mendha-Lekha sounds like a Utopian idea. But in spite of doubts and challenges, Mendha-Lekha successfully implemented values of gender equality, love, trust, friendship, and conservation of environment which are key principles for creating a civilised and prosperous future world. This can be brought into practice by any community where people have a will to unite.”
