Short Stories

The movies are as short as a minute to three minutes and have all been made keeping children in mind. “I think it’s important to tell children to plant trees and protect the environment. It should become a key value in their lives,” he explains. Mohite was inspired by his neighbour’s children who had once told him not to tear a leaf. “I thought,even a child understands the importance of protecting plants. It’s only adults who pollute the world,cut down trees and destroy the environment. This is the message I’m trying to put across to people,” he adds.

Mohite is also in the process of completing another short film,this time about jungles. The film,called ‘The Cage’,is Mohite’s attempt to widen the topics he covers in his environmental films. “It’s actually by popular demand. A lot of people said that I should widen my scope and speak about protecting jungles too,” he says. Mohite plans to distribute the two new movies along with the older ones at different schools and festivals in India and plans to submit them as entries to national and international film festivals from the next month onwards.

Despite the evident popularity of his movies,Mohite does not charge any money for screenings and instead distributes the movies to different schools and NGOs. “I made the movies with a handy-cam and barely spent Rs 150 on them. Why would I charge people money then? Besides,the whole point of the movies is to send a social message across,” he explains. “It thrills me when I think of how many children I have reached through my movies. Thousands of children have seen it in India alone and many others in Greece and other countries have seen it as well. This is enough reward for me,” he adds.

Mohite is lavish with praise for all the people who have helped him with the movies. “Ketan Hendre and Harshad Mehendale helped with camerawork,editing and the music and didn’t charge me either. The children in the movie,Yuval and Miteesha Gulati and Rayoji Patil were also extremely enthusiastic and didn’t even have to be coached on the lines or the acting! These movies have helped me discover that there are a lot of good people willing to help others in the world. To find these good people,you just have to take the first step,” Mohite says.