Movie : Beru (The Root)
Year : 2005
Banner : Mitra Chitra
Cast : Suchendra Prasad, H.G.Dattatreya, Seetharam, Venkatrao, Neeta, Vidyamurthy, Lakshmi Chandrashekar
Music : Praveen-Kiran
Direction : P.Sheshadri
Producer : Mitrachitra

Awards

• Indian National Award - Best Kannada Film (2005)
• Karnataka State Award - 2nd Best Kannada Film (2005)

Synopsis

A Governing system, big or small, is meant for service to people and developmental activities. But degradation of moral values, lack of commitment and the overall apathy of the public to the commissions and omissions of the system can lead to dangerous situations. The system may degenerate into self-seeking and self-protecting power centers instead of being proactive service center. When that happens, the system becomes breeding ground of corruption and scandals, manipulations and cover-ups. That leaves little time for bureaucracy for looking into the basic objectives of 'service' and 'Development'. Even honest individuals who want to do good get sucked into this stinking system. In course of time, the whole system becomes insensitive and indifferent to the nagging problems of common man resulting in mounting miseries. This is the kind of situation in which the zone of tolerance of the common man starts shrinking. One untoward incident is enough to kindle the spark of rejection of the entire system.

This film `BERU' (The Root) is an attempt to give a wake-up call to raise the consciousness of society about many such issues.

The story goes like this. A taluk level office has been functioning without a regular head for sometime. A junior level official is in charge of the office. It has stuck to mandatory minimal 'routine' work.

Goravayya is a poor old folk artiste. Though living on a small income, he has been magnanimous in his own small way to provide shelter to an orphan girl. He is stuck with a problem. The roots of a tree are affecting the stability of his small shelter. He has been repeatedly requesting the office for permission to fell the tree to save his shelter. 'Come later' has been the standard reply.

At last, a regular officer arrives on posting. Being sincere and enthusiastic, this new officer starts tuning the office for proactive working. Even before he settles down, a minister's visit is announced. Arrangements have to be made in the Inspection Bungalow (IB). Much to his shock and surprise, nobody in the office knows about the IB! In the process of locating this IB, a scandal unfolds. The IB exists only on records. It is not there physically. So many irregularities and misappropriations come to light. The new officer is not able to report the whole matter to higher-ups because of his own indiscretion and emotional considerations. He tries to cover-up the whole thing by seeking approval for demolition of the 'dilapidated' (non-existent) IB and for rebuilding a new one there itself.

Meanwhile the minister's visit is cancelled. But by then the officer is deeply involved in this cover-up story created by himself. He is about to face the consequences. But his influential father-in-law comes to his rescue. He is now asked to provide some cooked-up reasons for the IB's 'present' condition so that the matter can be hushed up and he is saved. Goravayya is proposed to be implicated as the 'servant looking after IB' responsible for its present condition. On seeing the reluctance of the officer to go ahead with this proposal, the junior official takes the responsibility for coaxing Goravayya for his being implicated. Both of them go to see Goravayya only to find that his shelter has collapsed.

DVD Details

• All Regions
• PAL
• English Subtitles