Short film by Indian Railways on beautifying Bihar's Madhubani station wins national award

The short film is based on entire sequence of how over 225 local Madhubani painting artists voluntarily worked hard for more than 20 days to give an entire makeover to the station.
Paintings at the Madhubani railway station. (Youtube screengrab)
Paintings at the Madhubani railway station. (Youtube screengrab)

PATNA:  A short-film –'Madhubani- The Station of Colours', which narrates the beautification of a remote railway station belonging to the East Central Railway (ECR)  has bagged the ‘Rajat-Kamal’ award at the 66th National Film Awards for 2018.

The Madhubani railway station located in a remote part of Madhubani district of Bihar was earlier ranked as the country’s second most dirty railway station. However, with the help of artists who have decorated the station with indigenous Madhubani paintings, it has now become one of the cleanliest and most beautiful railway stations in the country.

A short film which narrates the process of transformation of the railway station has bagged the award of ‘the Best Narration over Voice (BNOV) eloquence quality through short-film' under the non-feature category.

Confirming this, chief spokesperson of ECR Rajesh Kumar said: "Madhubani- The Station of Colours’ is based on entire sequence of how over 225 local Madhubani painting artists voluntarily worked hard for more than 20 days to give an entire makeover to the station that was once ranked as the country’s second most dirty one”.

The Rajat-Kamal award carries a cash award of Rs 50,000 besides citation for a short film that makes an impact narration on any subject through people’s participation.

“The work to adorn the station with Madhubani paintings was started in 2017 by 225 artists including Padamshree awardee Sita Devi as an art-revolution of the station under the Swachh Bharat Mission. The hard and collective voluntary works of artists changed the station from ‘dirtiest’ to the ‘one of the most beautiful and cleanest stations of the country”, Kumar said, adding that the short film was made by the ECR to promote the folk arts of Mithila alias Madhubani paintings  He claimed that over 14000 square feet of station area has been beautified with paintings.

"For the first time in the history of Indian Railways, a drive like this under the Swachh Bharat Mission was taken up with the subject of exploring folk arts", he said, adding that film had narrated about this too.

Notably, among the 225 artists who beatified the walls of the station, 80 per cent were women who contributed voluntarily in order to promote the dying art of Madhubani paintings. 

Kumar further said the film had narrated about the paintings depicting the birth of Sita and scores of subjects ranging from the Ramayana to progress of railways through 300 paintings. Besides, the film that has brought laurels to ECR, a special coffee table book has also been brought out by the railways titled 'Colours of Mithila-Railways' Journey into the Arts'.

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The New Indian Express
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