A week after Gulzar’s tribute to Odia poet Haldhar Nag, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday pointed out some factual errors in the video, of course not without expressing thanks to the acclaimed lyricist / poet and documentary maker Bharatbala for the short film titled ‘Gulzar Presents Haldhar Nag’.
In a tweet, Dharmendra said that Nag was not from Sambalpur district, as stated in the short film. The Padma Shri awardee was from Bargarh district. According to Dharmendra, Haldhar Nag was from an economically weaker family and not a tribal one, as stated in the video.
Watched this evocative tribute to Odisha’s literary pride, Shri Haldhar Nag, penned by the legendary Gulzar Saab and produced by @bharatbala. Shri Nag’s poetry has a profound life connection with the masses and celebrates the varied shades of life. pic.twitter.com/g8Q6Lkso0J
— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) October 1, 2019
“Main tumhe khat likh raha hun, Haldhar. Sambalpur ki mitti se ugaa hua yeh Adivasi kavi, ‘Kosali’ zabaan mein likhta hai (I am writing a letter to you, Haldhar. The son of the soil of Sambalpur, this Adivasi poet writes in the Kosali language),” Gulzar says in the opening of the film.
The short film is the creation of documentary director Bharatbala as part of his new project, Virtual Bharat.
