Plea from the animal planet

Chimi's Dream, an animated short on the environment that's targetted at kids will be released by chief minister Sheila Dikshit in New Delhi on the occasion of earth day, tomorrow. The Guide gets a sneak peek, courtesy its Mumbai-based director

The 13-minute animated feature Chimi's Dream doesn't necessarily offer solutions to a planet on the verge of a global meltdown, especially not to a generation that's grown up listening to terms like 'global warming', 'deforestation' and 'pollution' being bandied about by an older generation desperate to make amends for its past indifference. But it might still serve as a helpful reminder for ways in which commerce, with man at the helm, continues to hack away at nature's limited reserves.

"I actually wrote the script for Chimi's Dream 25 years ago for one of my children's school assemblies. The script was later converted into an illustrated children's book by the same name," says Mumbai-based writer-director Laxmi Dhaul, who is in Delhi to promote the release of the animated short.

The plot
The film opens with the protagonist, Chimi, playing with his friend, the deer, on the outskirts of the jungle.
Exhausted, he falls asleep and soon starts to dream. In his dream, Chimi meets an owl, who tells him about the Green Parade that the animals are participating in to "arrest Nature's fall".

In the course of his journey, Chimi is approached by a bunch of animals, including an elephant, a frog, a monkey and a lion. Each of the animals share their concerns, which are, unsurprisingly, rooted in industrialisation.
Complaints range from a frog who has had to flee his home because of toxic dumping to a snake who feels he has nowhere left to hide because of deforestation.

"There is a dichotomy in the way we live; we say one thing, but often do another. Just as Sufism talks about the love for the divine, nature too is enveloped in that love," says Dhaul, who wrote a book demystifying the customs and traditions of sufi dargahs, titled Dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya.

Wider reach
Making the film was Dhaul's way of reaching out to a wider audience, which is also why she has had the film dubbed in Hindi. "We plan on releasing the revamped, illustrated book with the DVD by the end of the month, hopefully."

Call 9820075480