Chandrapur (Special correspondent) A short film ‘Tai’ has been produced on the life and work of a bamboo artist, who was born on a brick kiln in a small village of Savargaon, in Nagbhid taluka in Vidarbha and who reached the sky through extreme poverty. The name of the woman on whose life this short film has been made is Meenakshi Mukesh Walke, the name which has by now become quite famous internationally.
In this short film, two veteran actresses of Marathi Hindi cinema Vibhavari Deshpande and Shubhangi Gokhale have acted well. Although this film made by Gemini Cooking Oil is only 8 minutes long, the character of Meenakshi Mukesh Walke has been brought to life by actress Vibhavari Deshpande in a very emotional way. The short film was released on YouTube recently. Surprisingly enough, in just 24 hours, more than 80 thousand people in Maharashtra and the country have watched this short film. Now this figure has crossed over 1.30 lakhs viewership.
The short film appeals to women to take initiative like Bambu Lady of India Meenakshi Walke, so that women’s lives are not confined to the kitchen but they can contribute significantly to the society and the country.
Meenakshi has not studied much. She started craft work to overcome poverty since her childhood. After the death of the baby during the second delivery, Meenakshi took up the bamboo on the fourteenth day only. Her achievements include empowerment of over 1100 women in six years, 5 new inventions including the country’s first bamboo QR code scanner and a brand of bamboo rakhi.
Be it Virbhum, on the border of Bhutan and Bangladesh, Palghar in Thane or Bhamragarh in Gadchiroli district, Meenakshi reached the areas. She has made history by exporting her designs to five European countries without having her own house to live, machines or enough space to work. She is the first bamboo artist to receive an award in the Parliament of England.
Deepak Ramesh, who is involved in the production process of this short film, said, “We have been working on this for the last year. After researching for about three months, we selected Meenakshi’s work for the short film. If people respond, we will consider making this short film in a big format.”
We have many such projects coming up. But when the story of “Tai” came, I felt something different. Enjoyed being in harmony while acting in this, reacted Shubhangi Gokhale, famous actress.
