(Finalist)
Red Carpet & Award Ceremony 🎫 Get Your Tickets
Original Film Title: THANK YOU ZINDAGI
Director’s Name: Dheeraj Bhatnagar
Writer’s Name: SARGAM BHATNAGAR
Producer: SUNIL KUMAR
Country of Origin: India
Country of Filming: India
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 31 minutes 54 seconds
Film Description:
For many people, life doesn’t end with death—it begins in different bodies. This is a story of a man, who collapses during rehearsal of a play based on Indian epic, Mahabharata. The man playing Karn is rushed to hospital where doctors discover that the man has a medical condition in which veins in his brain are entangled, blocking flow of blood. Doctors advise his parents not to disclose the condition to the man lest it should cause stress. The man, unaware about the prognosis, plants a jamun (black berry) tree on his parents’ anniversary and tells them that they will enjoy the juicy fruit together in a few years. Parents know that he may not be around to enjoy the fruits. The man eventually finds the hospital file and learns about his medical condition and about his life’s uncertainty. He records a video message in which he tells his parents to donate his organs when he’s gone. The man goes for the final show of his play but collapses again after playing his part. He is taken to hospital where doctors declare him brain dead. Just then, the message lands in the mobile phones of his parents and his friends from the theatre group. In the video message, he says, “I may not be around when you read this message…” The film ends with four people, who have got different organs from the man, in the man’s house. A girl plays the man’s signature tune on mouth organ – and the film ends.
The film is set in India where hundreds of people, who need organ transplant, lose out on life due to scarcity of organs. Many people know that organs of a brain-dead patient can be donated to save lives but families often don’t donate organs unless the person had himself pledged his organs before death. Because of this most of the transplants in the country are done with organs from living donors; the number of deceased donor transplants is abysmally low. The film aims to promote deceased organ donation to save lives.