Wednesday, June 4, 2008
"Kick The Butt" - Short Film by Sharad Haksar
As part of our World No Tobacco Day campaign for 2008,renowned photographer Sharad Haksar prepared this visual short to accompany our Photo Exhibition. For those of you in Chennai catch it at Sathyam Cinema's shortly as well as at other theatre venues.
The pictures speak for themselves.
Smoke Signals - Ergo
The evening of May 30 was truly an inspirational one for smokers and non-smokers alike. CanStop organised a play reading, ‘Smoke Signals’ by Madras Players and a photo exhibition headed by Sharad Haksar to commemorate World No-Tobacco Day (May 31).
“There are 184 million tobacco consumers in India,” said Vijaya Bharati, Chairperson of CanStop. “And tobacco kills 50 per cent of its users.” “It is shocking to see children as young as 10 and 12 smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day,” Hemalini Mehta, a volunteer for CanStop, said.
“Nicotine is the most addictive substance,” Mithran Devanesan, an ex-smoker himself, explained. “There are different patterns of smoking that need to be identified and monitored. Support groups are essential if you want to quit.”
As a matter of fact, the Quitters Club does just that. Working along the same lines as the Alcoholics Anonymous Groups, the Club gets together once or twice a week to counsel and help its members.
According to Hemalini Mehta, if a person wants to quit and wants the help of a counsellor to do so, all they had to do was to fill in the Quit Line Entry Form distributed to the audience at the Heritage Centre. “We will contact that person and help them out.”
Directed by Mithran Devanesan, ‘Smoke Signals’ consisted of a series of rib-tickling quotes, songs, and extracts from novels read by P.C. Ramaswamy, Vishalam Ekambaram, Freddy Koikaran, Mithran Devanesan and Sharanya Nair.
Among the most memorable were the Caterpillar and the hookah scene in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Gum,” a short story about a piece of bubblegum that began chewing its chewer.
Though the pieces were light, the gravity of the underlining message was pretty clear by the end of the evening. After all, as Hemmingway once said, “Cigarette smell is awful if you have a nose that can truly smell.”
“There are 184 million tobacco consumers in India,” said Vijaya Bharati, Chairperson of CanStop. “And tobacco kills 50 per cent of its users.” “It is shocking to see children as young as 10 and 12 smoking up to 20 cigarettes a day,” Hemalini Mehta, a volunteer for CanStop, said.
“Nicotine is the most addictive substance,” Mithran Devanesan, an ex-smoker himself, explained. “There are different patterns of smoking that need to be identified and monitored. Support groups are essential if you want to quit.”
As a matter of fact, the Quitters Club does just that. Working along the same lines as the Alcoholics Anonymous Groups, the Club gets together once or twice a week to counsel and help its members.
According to Hemalini Mehta, if a person wants to quit and wants the help of a counsellor to do so, all they had to do was to fill in the Quit Line Entry Form distributed to the audience at the Heritage Centre. “We will contact that person and help them out.”
Directed by Mithran Devanesan, ‘Smoke Signals’ consisted of a series of rib-tickling quotes, songs, and extracts from novels read by P.C. Ramaswamy, Vishalam Ekambaram, Freddy Koikaran, Mithran Devanesan and Sharanya Nair.
Among the most memorable were the Caterpillar and the hookah scene in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Gum,” a short story about a piece of bubblegum that began chewing its chewer.
Though the pieces were light, the gravity of the underlining message was pretty clear by the end of the evening. After all, as Hemmingway once said, “Cigarette smell is awful if you have a nose that can truly smell.”
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