Chandigarh (Aditi) Film is the most powerful medium to express emotions. They not only
entertain but also leave a strong impression in people’s mind. “Before I
Die” is a film of that league. This 24 minutes long film, made by Haryana
based filmmaker Nakul Dev is the lone entry from Haryana in “Documentary
Films” category at the forthcoming “International Film Festival of
India” being organized from 20th to 28th Nov 2020 at Goa whose entries
closed today.
Nakul Dev is a professional film maker with several professional films
to his credit in last 17 years after his course in Film Making from Bhartiya
Vidya Bhawan. He makes films mostly on social issues and has won many
National and international accolades. His feature film ‘BLUE MOUNTAINS’
won “Golden Elephant” award as best film from Asia in 2017. His other films
that won acclaim are “ NAXALITES OF CHATTISGARH”(2019), “IN THE
NAME OF LOVE” that covers sensitive issue like ‘Love Jihad’ and “AASMA”
(2019) that features true life story of a Kashmiri Girl , “AKHNOOR” a short
film on Terrorism in Kashmir, and “AIDS SE MUKTI” made for Haryana
Govt in 2007. Despite being for so long on Mumbai, he has retained his love
for socially relevant local issues which he films with great sensitivity and
aplomb.
For ages, Indian society has been struggling with the issue of a
SWACHHTA without any long-term solution. “Before I Die” is a film that
searches the context of the life journey of Dr Ramji Jaimal, a “FLOWER
MAN OF INDIA”, a great soul from Darbi village in Sirsa Haryana has
found a way out that has changed things forever in thousands of schools
and public places of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal, U.P., Uttarakhand,
Rajasthan, Delhi and Chandigarh. The story started 13 years ago at the
Government school in his village whose outer boundary wall was the
receptacle of village litter that used to cause a stink so strong that students
in the classes barely 20 feet away just could not study. Dr Ramji, who had
always been a social reformer along with his friends, removed the litter but
the waste kept coming back, till he decided to plant flower saplings on that
200 feet long roadside. At that time villagers opposed him saying that he
was using public place for private purpose of growing flowers, but after 4
months when the flowers blossomed, the are was full of fragrance and lo
and behold there was no litter in that bed area and the school children were
full of grateful smiles. Also, the trees on the site were growing in full
blossom a they received clean plentiful water. This he fund as the “Way to
Swachhta”.
That is when Dr Ramji decided that he would dedicate his life to
distribute “Flower saplings” free to Public institutions and empower them
to get rid of litter around their institutions. Starting from 20000 saplings in
2003 his NGO AAPSI has now grown to distribute 12 Crore saplings annually
today from 3 places. The movement is growing and many local members
are distributing saplings sourced from his seeds at places as far away as
Jalalbad, Fazilka, Jind and Karnal. Dr Ramji, a remains a humble farmer
whose house is still needing repairs and kitchen is still kachha, but the
fragrance spread by him and his NGO AAPSI has healed lakhs of souls and
brought smiles to them besides making areas clean forever. So much so
that neighboring Hissar Distt , where almost all schools have been covered
by his flower saplings, has featured in the top ten cleanest schools district
sin the country in Swachhta Sarvekshan.
This film is about the Vision this man Dr Ramji has about his area
that the place should be so fragrant that peacocks come and stay in that
area, before his death. The film “Before I die” took three years to make and
has musical score sung by Dr Ramji himself in his melodious voice whose
unsung story has been brought to the fore by filmmaker Nakul Dev and his
team in a path breaking effort said Sunil K Gulati IAS Additional Chief
Secretary, Haryana in an online press conference held today.