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Thinking big
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Vignettes from the Children’s Short Film Festival
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Photo: M. Periasamy
HAPPY TIME For the kids
It was unusually quiet for a children’s programme. Then, you realised why. Seventy-odd children were seated, eyes glued to the huge screen, as Charlie Chaplin, the big daddy of pure jollity was famously tripping and tumbling. Soon enough, the hall reverberated with peals of laughter.
It was a short film festival conducted by Divyodaya and Kalam Film Society as part of International Children’s Day. After the film, nearly 50 children from Don Bosco Anbu Illam joined them, to be smitten by a magician’s tricks. Magician Veerasekar tore apart a sheet of newspaper, and bingo! Two crisp currency notes emerged. Then, coins appeared from behind the ears, playing cards popped out from a pack – and the gaping audience lapped it up.
The idiot box
And, the short films at last. The first was the 13-minute Pazhudhu (repair). The television at home has gone bad. And, a little girl completes her homework, colours pictures, and even dances, listening to the music from a tape recorder. Her mother sends away the TV mechanic. In the final scene, the tape recorder gets the pride of place upstaging the television. Director J. Vinayakamurthi has captured how the idiot box gobbles up one’s time, company and creativity.
The next was Pagal Kanavu (fantasy). A cobbler’s daughter (played brilliantly by Daphney) yearns to get into school. Unfortunately, her father can’t afford to put her there.
The six-minute film by Saravanan portrays the collective struggle and longing of the underprivileged. Every child should be provided with education, felt many in the audience.
Ullen Iyya (Present, sir!) stood out for its treatment. G. Sujay Anand has used just the shadows of the characters in the short film. Sundaram writes a leave letter to the class teacher explaining his absence the previous day was due to his brother’s sickness. However, we are told what exactly happened. Penniless, he has to wash tumblers at the tea stalls to buy a bun for his ill mother. And, gets late for school. The leave letter dangles among many others, and you wonder how many untold stories each of them contains.
The last four-minute film by V.N. Rajkumar was a show grabber. Padasalai (school) begins with a blind girl selling mangoes. Two girls buy mangoes, and one of them craftily slips a fruit into her bag.
As they take a few steps, the blind girl calls them back, and hands over an anklet they had dropped. Without a word, the schoolgirl replaces the mango she had removed.
Many children confidently took the stage as critics.
W. SREELALITHA
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