Ek Tha Gaon

Ek Tha Gaon (lit. 'Once Upon a Village') is a 2021 Indian documentary film directed by Srishti Lakhera. The film won two National Film Awards at the 69th ceremony for its poignant exploration of rural depopulation in the Himalayan village of Semla, Uttarakhand, blending ethnographic storytelling with socio-ecological commentary.^[1]

Ek Tha Gaon
Directed by	Srishti Lakhera
Written by	Srishti Lakhera, Bhamati Sivapalan
Produced by	Srishti Lakhera, Bhamati Sivapalan
Starring	Leela Devi, Golu
Cinematography	Amith Surendran, Kai Tillman
Edited by	Bhamati Sivapalan
Music by	Kabeer Kathpalia Savera Mehta
Release date	4 November 2021 (2021-11-04)
Running time	61 minutes
Country	India
Language	Garhwali (with English subtitles)

Synopsis

The documentary centers on Semla, a once-thriving village in the Tehri district reduced to seven inhabitants after mass urban migration. Eighty-year-old Leela Devi, representing the village's aging resilience, refuses to abandon her home despite physical struggles and isolation. In contrast, 19-year-old Golu yearns to escape to the city but remains trapped by economic limitations. Their intertwined narratives reveal the psychological toll of abandonment and the erosion of agrarian traditions tied to seasonal cycles.^[2]

Production

Director Srishti Lakhera, a Uttarakhand native, spent two years filming in Semla to capture its "haunting absence." Collaborating with editor-producer Bhamati Sivapalan, the team employed observational documentary techniques, using long takes of the Himalayan landscape to emphasize environmental fragility. Cinematographers Amith Surendran and Kai Tillman prioritized natural light to reflect the villagers' austere reality, while sound designers Dharmesh Vora and Rajesh Joshi incorporated ambient noises like rustling leaves and distant bird calls to evoke the village's spectral atmosphere.^[3]

Themes

The film critiques unsustainable development policies through three interconnected lenses. First, it examines the mass exodus from Himalayan villages like Semla—over 90% of families migrated due to collapsed agriculture and absent infrastructure, mirroring Uttarakhand's crisis of 1,700+ ghost villages. Second, it highlights climate vulnerabilities through drying springs and erratic monsoons that disrupt subsistence farming, forcing reliance on imported goods. Finally, it explores gender dynamics: elderly women like Leela become inadvertent archivists of traditions, while younger generations like Golu face limited agency in patriarchal rural structures. The film avoids romanticizing poverty, instead foregrounding systemic neglect through imagery of abandoned temples and overgrown fields.^[4]

Release and reception

Premiering at the 2021 Mumbai Film Festival (MIFF), Ek Tha Gaon earned acclaim for its "poetic yet unflinching gaze" and won 12 international awards. The 69th National Film Awards jury praised its sound design for making silence audible, particularly in scenes where Leela listens to vanished neighbors' echoes.^[5]

Awards

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2023	National Film Awards	Best Non-Feature Film	Won	[6]
	National Film Awards	Best Audiography (Dharmesh Vora, Rajesh Joshi)	Won
2022	John Abraham Award	Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking	Won	[7]
2022	Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival	Audience Award	Won	[8]
2022	All Living Things Environmental Film Festival	Best Documentary	Won	[9]

Legacy

In 2023, the film inspired Uttarakhand's "Return to Roots" policy allocating funds for mountain agriculture revival. Lakhera and Sivapalan later launched community filmmaking workshops in Himalayan villages to document oral histories. A restored version was archived by the National Film Archive of India in 2024 as "culturally significant."^[10]

See also

• The Salt of the Earth – documentary on human–nature interdependency
• Rural flight in India