Forgotten Things

'Circle' a Marathi short film screened as the inaugural feature in the Madurai Documentary and Short Film Festival, currently on in the Madura College Auditorium halls, happens to be the theme of this article. I have been quite fortunate to watch three short films or documentaries this forenoon of 07/12/2010. This first one is a real treat to the audience who has been hankering for a great feast, much different from the mundane box-office implosions. It is a story of a six or seven year old boy, who is fatherless and poor. As the film opens the boy bathes himself with tremendous involvement relishing each drop of water that caresses his body from crown to toe. The mother hurries him with the lure of his favourite sweet-meat impending to be prepared as it awaits the condiment of jaggery to go with it. He finishes his bathing and prays to Gods and to his departed father and rushes out to buy the condiment. En route to the destination he is subjected to devilish lure in the forms of a race, a bioscope show; a feature with an aperture to view photographs of film personalities, and in the end a game played by boys by drawing a circle and putting dimes within it. The objective of the game is to release as many dimes as possible from the immure. The boy successfully suppresses the former surging pitfalls but finds himself engulfed by the last one. He plays the game with great aver and contributes greatly to the disfigurement of the dime. The game gets abandoned as the elders of the village interrupt and the boys disperse picking up the dimes that they have laid their hands to. The boy rushes to the shop only to be told that the dime will not be accepted in exchange of the jaggery. Disheartened, he cries himself out in a temple and goes back home much late only to be consoled by his lovable mother and treated with the surprise of getting his favourite sweet-meat from his neighbour.

The remaining two films deal with two different subject. The Austrian 'Waiting' has a post-modern theme of unresponsive attitude of the citizens as they proceed with their work no matter what happens around them. The Tamil 'Senkruthi' features three powerful figures, Ravana of the Ramayana fame, Kumaran a freedom fighter from Tamil Nadu and One Man from the Sri Lankan Tamil family that has suffered in the recent war between the LTTE and Sri Lankan Army. It has a rather somber end with macabrely finish to it.