Resilience comes under the spotlight
GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN
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Acceptance was the message at India International Disability Film Festival.
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The India International Disability Film Festival (July 7 to 11) conducted by the Ability Foundation, in the city, was really the first of its kind in India, though a couple of such events were held in New Delhi on a much smaller scale. The festival had two sections.
One was novel. Termed "An Inclusive Society," it showcased 53 minute-long movies, chosen out of about 500 entries that came mostly from India.
A jury chaired by Adoor Gopalakrishnan picked the three best shorts, and gave them cash prizes of Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000. Most of the entries were remarkable in conceptualisation and execution.
Overcoming a handicap
"Becky" by Madhi and Thiagarajan Kumararaja, which walked away with the first prize of Rs. 1 lakh, was a wonderful animation that spelt the dream of a little girl in a wheelchair: A full-length Bengali feature by Tapan Sinha, "Wheelchair," which was part of the 20-odd movies screened in the Festival's other section was a study in human resilience. A great piece of evocative performance by a wheelchair-bound Soumitra Chatterjee! One of the best in the Festival, was Masjid Majidi's Iranian work, "The Colour of Paradise," a moving piece of celluloid that unfolds a father-blind son relationship. In a series of changing emotions, the director conveys contrasting emotions.
Message of hope
There were two other features that spelt this message: one through a little boy, and the other through a couple. The Festival's opening film from Czechoslovakia, "Jumping over the Puddles Again," is set in the lush countryside at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A little boy overcomes a polio deformity to become a horse rider. Director Karel Kachyna's pasteurisation of sheer effort is striking.
Unfortunately, one could not savour the film because of bad print and equally bad projection at the Anand theatre, where the Festival was held.
It was the same case with yet another gripping work from Australia, Paul Cox's "Cactus." Cox traces blindness through his protagonist, Isabelle Huppert, whose life is disturbed after a motor accident. The one-minute long, "With a little help from my Friends," by Nakul Shawhney, which won the second prize of Rs. 75,000, harps on a similar theme: a group of youngsters celebrate life with music and mirth. Some are handicapped, but it does not bother them when they find acceptance, a sense of being included that Huppert clutches on to as well. An inclusive society, which Ability Foundation is striving for.
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