Railway children: Tales of runaway kids!

What is the story of a child lost (and found) on a railway platform? It is possible the child has run away from his/her home for some reason. Every child ‘rescued’ from a railway platform has a story to tell, sometimes real, other times bordering on fantasy. And yet in every story, perhaps one cannot miss the ignoble tale of hundreds of children being wronged by society at large.

Director: Prithvi Konanur

Film clip

Railway children (2016), the Kannada film, is a sensitive, yet matter-of-fact, rendering of such an important subject. It presents many stories of railway children sans any melodrama. It is as though the unfortunate children are coming in front of you to be noticed whether you like it or not. The cruel circumstances in which these children are strangulated can send a jitter in every caring adult.

Director Prithvi Konanur has dealt with the subject quite efficiently and professionally. It is clear that he does not want to make a spectacle out of the squalor of these lowly kids. He seems also interested to go deeper into reasons why they run away from home. While, most children who decide to run away do so for obvious reasons, there may be a few others who run away unable to deal with certain existential questions. The film even in the final frame strikes a deeper chord in the hearts of the audience.

Hats off to the little jollu, pappu and other ‘railway children’ who bring life into the characters by their natural skills! The film makes one ponder deeper even after the images have just passed by.  

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Dhag: The fire all around!

Here is yet another important film in Marathi that deals with a unique subject. The film won several national awards last year, including the best actress award for Usha Jadhav. The film deals with a caste related practice. Here is a family whose family trade is cremating the dead in the village. Ironically, it is in the death of someone that the family must find its living.

 

Director: Shivaji Lotan Patil

Film Clip

The problem becomes acute when in a sudden turn of events, the man in the family dies of snake bite and the young son has problems continuing with this practice. Though the son wants to study and become someone in life as per his father’s wish, he realises how the eventuality has brought in several other problems to the family, including the lustful advances of men towards his mother. It is in this context that the son must make a decision of his life.

The young Hansraj Jagtap as Krishna adds life to a film which in parts turns melodramatic. The suffering that a caste related trade brings to a poor family can be seen and felt through the tender yet mature expressions of this young boy. The blaze (dhag) is not just that which emanates from the pyre, it is there even in his eyes. The film, of course, does not end pessimistically, which is its strength. There is hope even when the fire blazes all around you.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Tsotsi: Loss of childhood

We hear a lot about juvenile delinquencies and try to pass judgements on them, without understanding their background and circumstances in which they grew into delinquents. Tsotsi is a South African film that deals with this theme. It is the story of Tsotsi, a juvenile delinquent. He has become so due to various circumstances surrounding his upbringing in dire poverty.

In the film, though, he is faced with a peculiar situation. While trying to steal a car, he realises that he has got a baby as bonus in the car. He has no choice but to take care of the little one. He uses his gun and muscle power to force people around him, especially a mother of a new-born, into taking care of the kid. In the meantime, he has to make a lot of compromises on his ‘profession’ of extorting people. In the end, though, his real human nature comes to the fore.

Director: Gavin Hood

Film Clip

What is unique about this film is that it suggests even deviants as having a human face. No-one by nature can be bad. There is some goodness in all of us and different crucial circumstances bring forth that goodness in all of us. In fact, he seems to regain his lost childhood in the company of the new-found baby.

The film is indeed a class art for more than one reason. The camera work is smooth and uninterrupting. The narration too has its beauty, in that it does not tend to overdo the crime décor of the theme. Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) captures our attention, despite him being an ‘anti-social entity’. The film has a unique touch of Zulu culture in most parts, especially in the Kwaito background score.   

- Melwyn Pinto SJ