Ganga Film
Adrienne Borgman
Ganga Zumba is a Brazilian film made in 1963 by Carlos Diegues and released in 1972 about slavery in Brazil.[1] It portrays the life of the leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares, Ganga Zumba. When he took power the Quilombo (which was how the havens built by runaway slaves were called) already had existed for approximately one hundred years. Its soundtrack was composed by Moacir Santos and played by Nara Leo, with African rituals and dance performed by the Sons of Gandhy group.[2] It was filmed in accurate locations as proposed by the Cinema Novo. Also present in the movie were the musicians Cartola and Dona Zica.
Based on a book written by Joo Felcio dos Santos, Ganga Zumba, the movie discusses the context of sugar production in the Brazilian Northeast during the 1600s, when slaves would flee from the Portuguese plantations and create their own villages, highlighting the Quilombo do Palmares' role in this process.
In a sugarcane plantation in Pernambuco, in the 17th century, Anto is a young a slave born in the below decks of a slave ship which brought his mother, a captive, to the Portuguese colony of Brazil. When he is older, he is told that his mother (who by then had already passed away) had been a queen, and that he was destined to become Ganga Zumba, African king. The wise and old slave Sororoba tells him also about Palmares, a free kingdom hidden in the hills and protected by the Orisha Oshosi, formed by runaway slaves.
Palmares' king, Zambi, who was in constant war against the whites, had just lost his son and, upon learning of Anto's existence, wanted him to become Palmares's new leader. Sorobaba and others prepared his escape with the help of a guide sent by Zambi, and, together with his lover Cipriana, he flees. While on the road, they are spotted by Portuguese landowners from a neighbouring farm, but they manage to kill them, except for the slave Dandara. When, however, they stumble upon the river that was the designated meeting place with Zambi's warriors, they find no one. Eventually, they manage to find Palmares where they receive a king's welcome, despite pursuit by the slave hunter Tolentino da Rosa.
Ganga is a 2006 Indian Bhojpuri-language film directed by Abhishek Chhadha and produced by Deepak Sawant. Nagma has won Bhojpuri Film Award for Best Actress at Second Bhojpuri Film Awards in 2007.[1][2][3]
Raju (Raj Kapoor) is a poor, friendly orphan who wins his bread by singing songs. One day, he sees an injured man and helps him. Later, he is kidnapped by a few bandits who mistake him to be an undercover policeman. It then turns out that the injured man he helped is the leader (Sardar) of this gang. The Sardar takes good care of Raju and treats him with honour. Sardar's daughter Kammo (Padmini) falls in love with Raju. Kammo and Sardar convince Raju that they are good bandits who are making sure that wealth is equally distributed amongst people.
On one of the lootings, Raju witnesses the murder of a newlywed couple. He decides to go to the police and leaves the gang. One of the bandits, Raka (Pran), kills the Sardar and takes over, captures Raju; and tries to forcibly marry Kammo. Raju eloped and tells all the truth to the police, they decide to confront and kill the bandits. Raju begs the police to not kill them but is shunned. Raju is then posed in a dilemma of what to do and finds himself helpless when he sees police stooping just as low to stop crime. He then returns to the colony of dacoits to convince them to surrender to the police in order to ensure good and respectful life to their family, especially their children.
The film won many prestigious awards at National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards. The film stood out at the 9th Filmfare Awards function by winning the most (four) awards in various categories from eight nominations.
Ganga is a 1960 Bengali drama film directed by Rajen Tarafdar.[1] This film narrates the life of river fishermen.[2] This film was based on the 1946 same name novel of Samaresh Basu[3] and made under Cine Art Productions Pvt. Ltd. banner.[4] The music of this film was composed by Salil Chowdhury.[5]
Panchu is a fisherman. His young nephew Bilash joins the profession who is very short tempered. He wants to go to sea and capture fish there. But Panchu is scared of it and does not want to allow Bilash to do so. He arranges the marriage of Bilash with Gardi who used to do fishing in Ichamati river.
Ganga Gowri is a 1973 Indian Tamil-language Hindu mythological film, directed and produced by B. R. Panthulu. The film stars Gemini Ganesan and Jayalalithaa & Jayanthi with music composed by M. S. Viswanathan. It is a remake of Panthulu's own 1967 Kannada film Gange Gowri.[1] The film was released on 16 January 1973,[2] and emerged a commercial success.[3]
The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by Kannadasan.[6] The song "Andharangam Naan Ariven" is set in the Hindustani raga Bageshri,[7] and "Azhagiya Megangal" is set to Amritavarshini, a Carnatic raga.[8][9] The song "Pichandi Thannai" is set in Hindustani raga Ahir Bhairav, and "Aadhi Naathan" is set in Sahana.
In Central Cuba, proud members of the Ganga-Longoba, a small Afro-Cuban ethnic group, have kept their unique heritage alive. Incredibly, through decades of brutal enslavement, independence wars, and then the denying of all religions after the revolution, they have retained a collection of distinct songs and dances that one of their ancestors brought from Africa as a slave. Each December 17th they still perform them at the San Lazaro ceremony.
After a chance discovery while working in West Africa, director Emma Christopher spent two years showing a film of the Ganga-Longoba songs and dances to several thousand people across Sierra Leone. Eventually, in an isolated village with no road access, one man looked at another in joy and wonder as he watched a recording of the Ganga-Longoba songs and said, "THEY ARE WE!" Then the villagers joined in with others of the Ganga-Longoba songs, still recognizing them clearly despite all the years of separation.
Returning to Cuba, Emma showed her findings to the Ganga-Longoba. "We are not so alone anymore", said one of their number, woodcarver and artist Alfredo Duquesne. Later he would say that knowing where he came from "is divine."
In early 2013, after the law changed allowing them to freely leave Cuba, a trip was at last made to visit Sierra Leone. It turned into a remarkable celebration, a rare recognition of the tenacity and resolve of one young girl who once made the awful journey from Africa to Cuba, but never let her memories of home die.
THEY ARE WE tells the story of the Ganga-Longoba and of the village their ancestor called home. It is the story of how, just very occasionally, a family separated by the slave trade can reunite for the good of all.
In 1986, 600 orphans and rural children from Burkina-Faso were sent to Cuba with the mission of learning a trade so they could come back and develop their country, which was undergoing a Revolution. But after the assassination in 1987 of the country's president and the end of the Cold War, how were they to return?
Hydropower is seen as clean in terms of air pollution, but the ecological impact of any dam on a river is immense, irreparable and long lasting. The government just sees the direct cost-benefit ratio in terms of money invested and the revenue generated and assumes all negative impacts can be mitigated through technology.
Large hydropower dams underperform their stated installed capacity because the actual flow in the river is much less than the design flows due to continuous deforestation in the catchments of the rivers. Hydropower is poised to meet significant energy demand in the next few years, yet many other environmental and social costs associated with large hydropower dams affect its sustainability and are ignored.
Those affected have continued to protest for long-term sustainability, environmental and social aspects of the projects, the most notable mass protests and public outcry in recent years being in the northeast over projects like Lower Subansiri and Tawang. Yet the government went ahead with the projects.
The film also raises the issue of how unprecedented rainfall and fragile Himalayan geology combine to pose a safety risk to all riverine infrastructures. This was seen during the Uttarakhand floods in 2013 where many hydropower projects, be it their barrages or tunnels, were damaged and in some cases, exacerbated the impacts of the flood.
Coal-based power plants account for about half of the greenhouse gas emissions and over 70 percent of the total freshwater withdrawal by the industrial sector. They rank highest in air pollution and waste generation. Generation of fly ash, a major pollutant from these plants is to the tune of 60 million tonnes and is more than twice the municipal sewage waste generated in the country.
Technology is being developed to generate cheaper electricity from solar photovoltaics-based projects and this will lead to an expansion of renewables. Major domestic and global firms are in the fray to develop new solar capacities.
A systematic electricity sector transformation is needed to bring in cost effectiveness in renewable energy, especially solar and wind power. Not just that, a major grid and energy efficiency drive is the need of the hour. Renewable energy transformation would require policy continuity as the sector needs to rely on private capital to finance this scale of investment.
Supported by a balanced mix of facts paired with accounts from various stakeholders be it dam officials, affected locals, researchers, activists and doctors, the film questions the continued thrust on coal and hydropower. The film understandably has a heavy focus on the benefits of renewable energy like wind and solar while not fully addressing the ecological and human impacts these sources may have.
Since Ganga was not shown in any of the moments where objects were breaking, the filmmakers seem to encourage the idea that Ganga was responsible for them. Yet they never say for sure, they leave it to our imagination. I actually think that this was a wise decision. I mean, after 21 years, we are still talking about it and wondering about it. Is that not brilliant film making? In the remake Bhool Bhulaiyya, Priyadarshan added a scene at the end of the movie actually showing that the Ganga character was throwing those objects very quickly before anyone noticed. But the fact that this was not explained in Manichitrathazhu was not a loophole, at least in my opinion. I think it was intentionally left that way to create a lasting curiosity in the audience about the film.
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