Dinesh Kamath's column on film 'In the Name of Tai - Tai Ke Naam' that was published in Newsband

In The Name Of Tai - Tai Ke Naam is inspired by a factual tragedy of slain activist Navleen Kumar's heroic, short yet audacious life. Ujjwal Thengdi is adamant to keep her precious life in a cherished memory through his film Tai.

The film is a female orientated story inspired by a true story of a dedicated well educated village woman (lawyer), respectfully known as Tai (Tai means elder sister) who chooses a valiant but a perilous avenue. She unfortunately suffers sexually (not rape!) as well as psychologically in her personal life, yet altruistically battles for a common cause of protecting acres of land owned by the village farmers and deprived poverty-stricken village community from the clutches of the corridor of Power, Builders, (The land sharks) and of course not forgetting the voracious politicians.

This story is inspired by a real story - that of an ordinary woman who struggled for 20 years against the powerful lobby of land mafia.

Filmmaker Ujjwal Thengdi is well known for his hard hitting Award winning debut Marathi film Vazir (Vazir means a Queen in the chess of game).

Filmmaker Ujjwal Thengdi has now produced, directed, written with lyrics and music, coordinated the action sequences and also acted in the Hindi film In The Name Of Tai – Tai Ke Naam. The film has actors like Dr Nishiganda Wad, Asrani, Dr Vilas Ujawne, Mahesh Thakur, Suzanne (German Actress), Raquel Rebello, Kalpesh Mehta, Parag Ajgaonkar, Babita and Ujjwal Thengdi. Cinematography is by Ajay Arya and editing by Dilip Kotalgi.

As I told you earlier, Navleen Kumar was a human rights activist who was murdered in 2002 in her apartment. She had been working for more than a decade to protect and restore the lands of Adivasis in Thane district near Mumbai through legal interventions that land and property developers were grabbing from the locals through coercion and intimidation. The film got released on 12 October 2012. Do watch the film.