Ata Thambaycha Naay!

When waste collection by sanitation workers was briefly paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, it took just a couple of days to show us how important a role they play in society today. Be it choked drainages, burst water lines or piled up garbage heaps, the municipal safai karmacharis are the first responders that get to work. Unfortunately, they’re also the first ones to bear the brunt of citizens’ wrath in such cases. Often it is the educated person that doesn’t think twice before covering their nose and making derogatory remarks about these workers. That lack of empathy and abundance the entitled behaviour also highlights the difference between education and literacy. In multiple scenes of his debut directorial, Shivraj Waichal sheds light on this. At its heart, Ata Thambaycha Naay is an ode to the BMC’s sanitation workers whose life is a paradox – they simultaneously form the backbone of the city and are among the most neglected lot. The film is based on the real story of class IV BMC workers going back to school at the behest of Uday Shirurkar, the erstwhile assistant municipal commissioner of BMC’s ward B.