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Just for kids!

Shoma A Chatterji in Calcutta

It's a promising new film, it's aimed at children, it's due to be released in Calcutta next month. And it has been directed by Tapan Sinha, a director most known for the magic he works with children. In fact, even in those of his films that are directed towards adult audiences, children feature prominently and behave like children.

Anokha Moti, Tapanda's very last directorial venture has been produced under the banner of Gaurang Films and is set against the seascape of a small fishing village. The people of the village are poor but happy, untouched by the corruption and decay that is part of urban life. The only vice they have to deal with in greed, yet even that underscores the naivete of the villagers and the innocence of the children.

Mahadev -- portrayed by Arjun Chakravarty, a regular Tapanda fixture -- is a fisherman who lives with his widowed mother and motherless eight-year-old daughter, Sumati. Their lives change magically, deceptively for the better, when Sumati discovers a pearl-filled oyster in her father’s catch. It turns out to have magical qualities because, soon after getting it, Mahadev wins a lottery.

Bhabesh, the father of Sumati’s friend Lalita’s father, cannot bear their good fortune. He hires goons to kidnap Sumati, intending to barter her for the magic pearl. The pearl, however, brings bad luck to Bhabesh who returns it.

Mahadev commands his tearful daughter to throw the pearl back into the sea, but the sea returns it to her little hands, cradled in a crest of waves. It seems like it is God’s wish that Sumati have the pearl for good.

The film has been shot almost entirely on location in the high seas of Shankarpur, a little-known seaside resort close to Digha. Most of the sequences have been shot from a trawler, a first for a children’s film and a rarity for most Indian films. The story, screenplay and music are all credited to the famed director, who has made this film after a long hiatus.

"It was R A Jalan who persuaded me to make one more children’s film," smiles Tapanda. "I was reluctant because I have been ailing for a long time. But Jalan, an old friend who has produced three of my films -- Harmonium, Safed Haathi and Aaj Ka Robinhood -- was insistent I direct one more film for children."

"The children -- every single one a fresh face -- have been just wonderful," say Arjun Chakravarty and Soumyendu Roy. Nayeb Aftab, who plays Sumati, is said to have given a wonderful performance.

Little Radhika Jajodia, who comes from a conservative Marwari family where films are not a part of their life-vocabulary, was brought out of her Sri Shikshayatan Primary School for a few weeks to play Lalita, Sumati’s friend. "I saw her perform at a dance function," recalls Tapanda. Radhika’a parents and grandmother also shared in the bonhomie of the location shoot.

"It was Tapanda’s longtime dream to shoot a film with the sea as the backdrop. So, when Jalan came up with the idea of doing a children’s film all over again, Tapanda decided to write the story with the seascape as his setting.

"Shooting with and from a trawler parked in high seas was a unique experience for all of us. It adds an element of excitement to the film. We shot at places from where we could not see the shore at all. I was more worried about whether I would be able to keep the camera steady against the turbulent waves than about any danger to my life. Because, with the swaying of the trawler, the camera was likely to shake and the shots would become shaky and jerky too. However, the sea cooperated by remaining as calm as ever and we came back whole in body and spirit," said cinematographer Roy, who has worked, among others, with Satyajit Ray.

"The film offered us tremendous scope to capture the sea in all its splendour and grandeur," says a beaming Jalan. His earlier films -- Safed Haathi and Aaj Ka Robinhood -- which were also directed by Tapan Sinha, have, between them, been screened at not less than a dozen international festival of films for children.

Aaj Ka Robinhood, dubbed in English as The Return Of Robinhood, created a record by being screened at the maximum number of international film festivals in a minimum period (12 festivals in 12 months), both in competitive and non-competitive sections.

This distinction has consolidated Tapan Sinha’s special talent in making children's films that can be equally enjoyed by adults. Which, apparently, is why the script for Anokha Moti was rejected by the Children's Film Society Of India's scripting committee.

This unpleasant shock, though, has not fazed Jalan. "I shall see that this film too participates in as large a number of film festivals, if not more, within a short time."