Moti Bagh

Synopsis83 year old Vidyadutt Sharma holds the record for growing the heaviest radish in India weighing 23 kgs. He now aims to beat the world record of 31 kgs. Over the last five decades, he has built up Moti Bagh, his 5 acre farm in a small Himalayan village in northern India. Around him lie 7000 ghost villages, left to die, with no one to till the land – a chilling testimony to large scale migration by locals in search of employment in the cities. With no manpower at their disposal, the few locals are employing Nepali labour. But there is unease because of this dependence and the growing influence of the Nepalis. As market forces exert pressure, family dynamics are also changing. Vidyadutt's journalist son, Tribhuvan, lives and works in Pauri, a large town 35 kms from Moti Bagh. His two children wish to chase their own dreams in the metros. Vidyadutt Sharma, farmer, activist and poet, chronicles the changing landscape in verses of resistance. As he and Ram Singh, his Nepali farmhand, plough the fields to keep a dream called Moti Bagh alive, we wonder if it will ever return to its old glory.

Nirmal is a multiple Award winning filmmaker who has been working in the field of documentaries for the last 20 years. He started his career as an editor. The films edited by him have travelled to many international festivals and have received awards. He also worked for four years in Dubai as Senior Promo Producer/ Editor for Ten Sports channel where he handled the promotion of major sporting events like Tour de France, Grand Slam Tennis Championships and various cricket, football and hockey series. He has conducted workshops on documentary filmmaking and has also served on juries at film festivals.