Movie on Mumbai deluge

Panaji,Nov 27 (UNI) ''26/7'', is a date Mumbaikars will never forget. It was the day when a terrible deluge devastated the metropolis taking a toll on life and property.

A 25-minute video film produced by Ashish Shelar,a BJP corporator from Mumbai attempts to catch the gravity of this deluge,the plight of the common man. It also tries to look into the reasons of this flood that has posed a serious question about the planning of the port city.

The video film was screened at INOX screen four here this afternoon. The short film takes the viewer to the time of a British Governor Gerald Angier who was first to realise the importance of the seven islands strewn in the Arabian sea. Angier decided to build a port city for the growing british empire in the Indian sub-continent and Mumbai was born.

What Gerald did to link these seven islands was unique in that era. He just filled up the creek between these islands with earth.

The process that Gerald initiated in the 17th century still continues. It is called reclamation - reclaiming land from teh sea.

Generation fter generation of administrators and politicians continued reclaiming land from the sea.

What Angier initiated out of need, soon transformed into greed.

A wanton assault on each and every water body around Mumbai. Mainly the Arabian sea and the Mithi river which flows through the city of Mumbai.

Directors of the film Yashwant Ingale and Rahul Kamble said, ''For half a century,the water bodies tried their best to withstand this continous reclamation by humans. The sea and the river decided to try their own reclamation process. The day was July 26,2005. In a short span of 18 hours almost 60 per cent of the city was under water. The deluge was unprecedented in the history of the city,''they said.

UNI MR KR BS1941