Yes, Prakash Jha has participated in the Global March Against Child Labour organised by the South Asian Coalition for Child Servitude (SACS) a couple of years ago and this sensitivity was directly reflected in "Gangaajal'' in which he made a reference to child bondage. And now he is working on another film dealing with the same issue which has been entitled "Ek Aur Bacchpan''.
"Cinema is a very potent medium and if the work we do has an impact on an actor's or director's mind, it is reflected in their movies. And in so doing, they may effect a change in places which we may not have been able to reach,'' argues Kailash Satyarthi of SACS, which organised the Mahapanchayat of children in bonded labour in Bhopal recently.
Well, the theme of bonded labour was earlier tackled by Mahesh Bhatt in his film "Girvi'' which too was made with the assistance of Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA), the Indian wing of SACS.
And so while Prakash Jha continues to make films dealing with issues of contemporary social relevance, the script on his first full-length film on bonded child labour is now ready and after the parliamentary elections get over, the filmmaker will start work on it. "The script revolves around two children from different backgrounds who work as bonded child labour and are thrown together in a common situation of oppression and slavery,'' says Rakesh, co-ordinator of SACS, who has written the script.
And while the organisation steps up its efforts to help end child labour across the country, it hopes to get real as well as reel support from Prakash Jha. While the former depends on his getting elected to the Lok Sabha, the latter depends on the availability of time. But then commitment to a cause creates its own ways to manifest itself.
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