Tag Archives: renewable energy

Amazing Adventures of Phulwa the Mechanic on the big screen

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“Main wapis nahin aan raha hoon, Phulwa. Is virane me apne liye kuch nahin rakha hai…koi naukri nahi na koi future.”

“I’m not coming back Phulwa, there’s nothing left for me here…no job and no future.”

When Phulwa, a mechanic who works at her father’s rundown garage on the highway, hears that her friend Kanhaiya is leaving the village–like thousands of other young people–she is distraught. In her village, there is no electricity and as a result, no enterprise. Everyone depends on the mercy of the corrupt diesel mafia who is hand in hand with the sarpanch’s husband for expensive diesel to power generators for electricity.

Phulwa the mechanic

Phulwa is distraught that people keep leaving the village

This is the turning point for Phulwa. She knows it’s time to take matters into her own hand. She finds a village 100km away that generates electricity from a biomass gassifier plant. She decides to construct a biomass plant in her own village, and start a business to supply electricity. But to do this, she will have to get the villagers to support her–even as Jogesh, the sarpanch’s husband tries to sabotage her at every step.

She wants to build a rice husk plant to generate electricity

Phulwa convinces some of the villagers to support her...

But can she convince the sarpanch (village head)?

Especially when the sarpanch's husband is intent on sabotaging her plan?

Shot on location in a village near Lakhisarai, Bihar, the film follows the amazing adventures of Phulwa as she tries to bring electricity and enterprise to her dark, dusty village.

Director: Kanchan Ghosh
Director of Photography: Arvind K.
Photographs: Nitin Upadhye

The Amazing Adventures of Phulwa the Mechanic

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Meet Phulwa. She is 19 years old and unlike any other girl in her dusty little village. She works as a mechanic helping her father, Ram Prasad, at his ramshackle garage on the highway.

One dark night, a car breaks down on the highway. A city-wala pushes the car to Ram Prasad’s garage and is surprised to see Phulwa there. “You’re just a girl, how can you fix a car?”

Phulwa stands up for herself. “I’m the best mechanic in this whole village. I’ll show you.”

But Phulwa’s village doesn’t have electricity and without it, she can’t repair the car, not even with her expert jugaad skills. Embarrassed and angry, Phulwa decides that enough is enough. Young men from her village have been leaving for the city in droves. There is no enterprise here and everything shuts down at dusk. It’s time for things to change. She’s going to find a way to bring electricity to her village.

She hunts down information and with the help of Kumar discovers a village a 100 kilometers away with light. This village generates electricity from a biomass gassifier plant. This is Phulwa’s solution, but she can’t do it alone. She needs to get the people in her village to contribute money to construct the biomass plant. But how will she convince Gayatri, the sarpanch (village head) to support her? Especially when Gayatri’s scheming husband is intent on sabotaging Phulwa’s plan? And how will she convince the villagers, who have long since given up on the dream of electricity?

Find out when this graphic novel comes out later this year.

Three Women Fuel a Revolution

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In Khamgaon, a kite festival is taking place. The sky is not blue but orange, pink, green, red filled with kites. A kite floats, slowly descending from the open skies..

A kite descends from the sky

A young girl chases it, forgetting that she is crossing the bridge that divides her village. A chain of events has been put in motion.

Chasing the kite...

...crossing the bridge












Ganga and Salma belong to lower caste families and stay on one side of the bridge. Poonam stays on the other side where high caste families live. But everyday, they walk the same path to collect firewood from an ever-decreasing forest. And everyday the forest recedes further and so they have to walk longer.

Poonam, Ganga and Salma

Collecting firewood












The bridge separates them – customs dictate that Ganga and Salma cannot cross the bridge, cannot touch Poonam, cannot eat with her… but what they are about to discover, is that their problems unite them.

The biogas plant - a promise of freedom?

A dilapidated biogas plant that everyone had forgotten about promises freedom – from the need to walk miles to the forest, from the hours spent collecting firewood, from a kitchen filled with smoke that is slowly eating away at their lungs. But is the promise of freedom enough to overcome the caste divide? Is it enough, the idea of biogas, to convince Bhavani Devi to cook with lower caste women?

Will Bhavani Devi agree?

Will the dream become a reality?












And where is the money to repair the biogas plant going to come from? After all, this is a small, forgotten village… where the only thing everyone remembers is that we should not work together…

Watch the film April 2011.

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Director of Photography: Vivek Thakur
Script: Vikas Chandra
Photographs: Nitin Upadhye

Suraj Ka Super Waterworks

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“Hamare gaon mein bijli kab bhejoge?” (When will you send electricity to our village?) This question starts the journey of a life time for Suraj – the protagonist of the first Be! Movie.

Suraj at the beginning of his journey.

Suraj’s story is set in the picturesque village of Lachchipur; close to the village a dam is being built and everyone in the village is very excited by this development. The villagers are hopeful that now, after many years, their village will finally have electricity. But when Suraj’s sister, Puja goes to the dam site to find out when electricity will come to their village, the engineers laugh at her. They say that the electricity from the dam is for big towns and cities, not for her sleepy village.

"Bijli kab bhejoge?"

Suraj decides to take charge of the situation and goes to everyone from the village headman to the district collector in order to get electricity. In fact, the district collector taunts Suraj to create electricity on his own if he wants it so much. And that is what he decides to do.

"Make your own electricity!"

Suraj searches for information about ‘creating electricity’ and seeks out Pooran Bhandari. Bhandari tells Suraj how with the use of traditional technology of water mills (gharats) he can generate electricity and light for the village. Suraj is overjoyed to hear this and can’t wait to start on renovating the gharat in their village but there is a bigger challenge that he must face: to convince the villagers to be a part of the project and find the money needed to renovate the gharat.

With the help of his friends and calls for a village meeting where he tells everyone all he has discovered about the gharat. He tells them all that will be possible once they have electricity: children will be able to study late at night, people will be able work at night, will be able to start different kinds of enterprises – their productivity will double, their lives will be better. His impassioned arguments convince the village women who decide to support him.

Suraj at the village meeting.

But even with their support, he doesn’t have enough money. To make his dream a reality Suraj has to take the biggest risk he has ever taken: get a bank loan…

Watch the movies in early 2011.

Director: Vinnil Markhan
Director of Photography: Vishnu Rao
Script: Shiraz Ahemd
Photographs: Nitin Upadhye