Valiya Chirakulla Pakshikal (2015)

• 80%
• 2015
• Drama
• Bijukumar Damodaran
• Kunchacko Boban
• Nedumudi Venu
• Suraj Venjaramoodu

The film is a partially fictionalized representation of the environmental disaster caused by the misuse of endosulfan pesticide in Kasaragod District of Kerala in India. This disaster was caused by nearly two and a half decades of endosulfan use on government-owned cashew plantations. The film explores the disastrous environmental and public health consequences of the pesticide misuse. It also concentrates on those health-related effects of endosulfan misuse, that persist to this day. The film depicts the after-effects of the pesticide spraying through the eyes of a photographer. His first visit to the area was during a rainy season in 2001, and his photographs revealed the shocking state of the numerous victims to the world. Endosulfan-induced misery gained worldwide attention due to this exposure. When the photographer visited the area again in summer 2006, many of the young victims he had photographed during his earlier visit, had been dead. Even now, children are being affected with strange and debilitating diseases. In 2011, the Stockholm Summit of UN on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) recommended a total ban on endosulfan. India was the only country that opposed this decision. A year later, in 2012, the photographer returned to Kasaragod. He realized that apathy and indifference to the plight of these unfortunate victims persisted, and that the survivors continued to suffer.