Category Films

Sahaj Paather Gappo is a Bengali film directed by Manas Mukul Pal and produced by Avijit Saha. The film depicts the story of two brothers, Chhotu and Gopal from a poor family of a Bengal village.

10-year-old Gopal’s carefree childhood is disrupted when his father meets with an accident. It becomes difficult for his mother to feed him and his little brother Chottu. Gopal starts devising ways to earn money. With a little assistance from Chottu he takes up odd jobs from cleaning wells to selling laboriously plucked fruits in the local village market. Emboldened by his initial success, Gopal fancies himself as the breadwinner of the family. Meanwhile, a grand Janmashtami feast is being planned in the Brahmin household where the pulao will be served. Hearing this both the brothers hatch plans of their own. Gopal would like to make a quick buck by selling palmyras for the feast, while Chottu starts dreaming of this fancy dish that he has never seen or tasted. After all he has heard that the whole village will be invited. But as a disheartening reality Gopal and Chhotu were not chosen to be invited. It shattered Chhotu’s dream world.

This film made its entry to Mumbai Film Festival 2016 in two categories and is selected for Indian Panorama section of International Film Festival of India 2016. It is also one of the two movies from India that competed in the international section of International Film Festival of India. Noor Islam and Samiul Alam jointly won the National Film Awards, India (2016) in the best child actor category.

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Village Rockstars is a 2017 Indian Assamese language coming-of-age film written, edited, co-produced, and directed by Rima Das, who is a self-taught filmmaker.

 The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Rockstars was Das’s second film after Antardrishti (2016). Her 2018 film, Bulbul Can Sing, was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2019, she directed her first documentary fiction ‘Sunshine Dreamers’. This is a result of her collaboration with BRICS co-production Kids & Glory for which she worked with Producer Lu Chuan and fellow BRICS Directors Tiago Arakilian, Nastia Tarasova, Shen Zhao Qing, Shane Vermooten and Lu Chuan.

‘Village Rockstars’ which tells the story of a 10 year old girl and her dream of owning a guitar and forming a band, the Rockstars, with a group of local boys, has also won awards in three other categories.

Village Rockstars also won awards in three other categories: Best Child Artist, Best Location Sound Recordist and Best Editing. The film was selected as India’s official entry to the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated for top nine films from 87.

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Smile Pinki (2008) is a 39-minute documentary directed by Megan Mylan. The film shows the story of a poor girl in rural India whose life is transformed when she receives free surgery to correct her cleft lip. 

“Nomination of Smile Pinki for an Oscar is bound to bring awareness about this congenital anomaly among the general public and health agencies and therefore it is a good news for all cleft patients whose life can change,” said an elated Singh.

Produced in Hindi (with English subtitles), Smile Pinki was also a 2008 nominee for best documentary short by the International Documentary Association.

Others in race with Smile Pinki are The Conscience of Nhem En, The Final Inch, and The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306.

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Ever since the trailer of Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Dhanak’ was released, it managed to tug at the deepest corners of the heart. Starring Hetal Gadda and Krrish Chhabria as the two children, the film revolves around the lives of eight-year-old visually impaired boy Chotu and his 10-year-old sister Pari.

Pari, who had promised her younger brother that he’ll be able to see before he turns 9, sets out on a magical journey with Chotu to meet their reel-life hero Shah Rukh Khan who is apparently promoting an eyes donation campaign.

The film was premiered at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Crystal Bear Grand Prix for Best Children’s Film, and Special Mention for the Best Feature Film by The Children’s Jury for Generation Kplus.

The film has also garnered the Best Film Award in the main category-Children’s Feature Film Competition-Cinema in Sneakers (film festival), and the Best Film Award – at the Montreal International Children’s Film Festival (FIFEM). Dhanak was also screened at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and the Toronto International Film Festival. The film has garnered Best Children’s Film at the 64th National Film Awards.

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The Blue Umbrella is a 2005 Indian drama film based on the novel The Blue Umbrella (1980) by Ruskin Bond. It was directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starred Shreya Sharma and Pankaj Kapur in lead roles. The music was by Bhardwaj and lyrics were penned by Gulzar. The story is about a conflict between a young girl and a mean old man in a small hill town in Himachal Pradesh.

In a small village of Himachal Pradesh, a little girl Binya trades her lucky leopard’s claw pendant for a pretty, frilly blue umbrella.

There were many who envied Binya her treasured possession, and the most envious of them all was old Ram Bharosa, the shopkeeper, who decided that he must own the blue umbrella, by means fair or foul.

The Blue Umbrella received positive reviews, including Hindustan Times writer Khalid Mohamed who describes it as a child’s confection ‘with passages of charm, visual aplomb and lively performances.’ The acting of Pankaj Kapur is noted in particular.

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From award winning director Santosh Sivan, TAHAAN is a stunningly shot, fable-like story set in scenic but strife-ridden Kashmir. The conflict is used as backdrop for the story of an eight-year-old boy, Tahaan, who tries to gain back his beloved pet donkey that has been sold to pay the family debt.

After major commercial releases such as The Terrorist (1999), Asoka (2001), Anandabhadram (2005) and Before the Rains (2007), award-winning director Santosh Sivan got the idea for this film after reading a newspaper report. He formed a fable-like story from the report.

Since Kashmir is a strife-torn area, films are rarely picturised there. However, in the case of this film, Sivan thought that audiences can relate it to the film well. It was only after 18 years that a film was filmed in Kashmir.

While filming in Pahalgam, Sivan realised to his surprise that children were comfortable with guns. It seemed to him that it was a part of everyday life for them. The film makes eloquent use of Quranic verses or azaan, for which the director took help from research scholars in Kashmir.

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