Canada based NRI Kiran Kaur made a film on cancer

Sangrur, October 9,2013(Neel Kamal)-Cancer, which claimed 34,000 lives during the past five years in Punjab and 24,000 are still suffering from the disease, has been a subject of documentary filmmakers and short films. In a latest attempt, a Canada-based NRI girl, Kay Ray alias Kiran Kaur, 23, has made a 4.55-minute film, presented in the form of a poem narrated by the protagonist whose father is suffering from cancer and mother is waiting for the train from Bathinda to Bikaner, known as 'Cancer Express', to take him there for treatment. In the film, Toronto-based artist Rupi Kaur narrates the plight of the daughter. Both Kiran and Rupi have their roots in Punjab.

The 'Cancer Train' tells the woman's emotional journey in expressing grief over her father's ailment, said Rupi Kaur. She had narrated this story at the Lions Roar festival and Kiran Kaur had directed it.

Now the film has been put in the 'Cry (drama)' category at Sikh net film festival and is competing with nine other films to grab $1000 prize.

The Abohar-Jodhpur passenger train passing through Bathinda and Bikaner is known as 'cancer train' which covers around 350km journey in 12 hours. Bikaner has a specialized cancer hospital and patients from far off places, mainly from Malwa region of Punjab, catch the train at Bathinda railway station for Bikaner.

Earlier, Chandigarh-based filmmaker Daljit Singh Dhaliwal had prepared a documentary 'Rok Sako tan Roko' (stop if you can) on the same issue. Cancer incidence is so high in Punjab, especially in the cotton belt of Malwa, that in the door-to-door survey conducted late last year and early this year, 33,318 deaths were reported in the past 5 years with 23,874 found to be suffering from the deadly disease and another 84,500 having symptoms of cancer.

Out of the overall death, Malwa lost its 14,683 residents. It was also found that if the national average of cancer patients per one lakh is 80, in Punjab it was 90 and in Malwa, 107.

Going by the seriousness of the problem, a 300-bed super specialty hospital is being constructed at Ghabdan near Sangrur and the Union health minister, accompanied by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, will lay the foundation stone for the hospital on October 10.