In film ‘I, Poppy’, the heady lure and crashing reality of opium cultivation
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Vivek Chaudhary’s I, Poppy is an intimate portrait of a debt-ridden family of opium cultivators in Rajasthan. The engrossing documentary explores the way in which farming, and the personal lives of farmers, are affected by agricultural policies.
Mangilal Meghwal is fed up with the challenges faced by small-time cultivators like him, from low procurement prices to corruption. Government officers demand bribes for certifying the purity of the opium extract, which forces farmers to trade in the black market. The extension of licences for a crop that is required for medical purposes depends on palm-greasing or arbitrary decision-making.
Mangilal isn’t one to take things lying down. Flamboyant and outspoken, the Dalit farmer tries to organise protests. Mangilal’s mother Vardibai and his two sons worry over his rising debt and risky activism.
Filmed over four years, I, Poppy closely follows the relationship between Mangilal and his relaties. The film is strong on portraiture. Vardibai and Mangilal emerge as distinct personalities: one cautious and resigned, the other dandyish and combative. Their travails are constructed by Chaudhary, cinematographer Mustaqeem Khan and editors Tanushree Das and Camille Mouton into a chronicle of rural disquiet caused by external forces and compounded by individual attitudes.
Completed in 2025, I, Poppy was selected for several prestigious festivals, including Hot Docs, Busan and...