Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars:
Why Children's Films are important?
Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Let me at
the beginning of the essay tell the readers what am I going to attempt to
discuss. I shall try to discuss the importance of Children’s Films, especially now,
in the age of Internet and social media, when children have easy access to
almost unlimited kinds of visuals.
But before I
go any further, let me make one thing clear.
What do we mean by Children’s Film?
Children's
films refer to films that are made specifically for children. It may appeal or
even endeared by general audience, but its target audience are children.
Children’s films may or may not have child protagonists. It may or may not even
have a child-centred theme or story line. The basic premise for Children’s
Films is: it is for the children. It could be for entertainment of for
education or even for information or a combination of all three in an
aesthetically pleasing and satisfying way.
Children's films come in several major forms
like fantasy, war, musicals, literary adaptations or even contemporary tales.
The operating principle is: it should be made for children as audience. The
theme may be lofty, but the treatment, presentation and language should be
appealing and palatable to the children.
Why Children’s’ Films?
Children’s
films, like stories or plays for children are primarily for entertainment by
the children. However, it serve other purposes too. Children have fertile mind.
The curiosity quotient is much higher. They want to explore more, know more, and
imagine more. Stories, songs, visuals partially fulfill this curiosity and
create a craving for more. It helps shape children’s aesthetic sensibility,
hones their questioning ability, and subtly helps to build their value system.
What is the scene in India?
India has
had a long tradition of storytelling and theatre. But for children, there have
been more stories than theatre. There could be several reasons for that,
primary being financial (Children could be excellent audience, but when it
comes to paying for the performance, one needs paying audience and therefore
there would be more theatre for general audience).
Probably
because of the same reasons, or probably some other reasons, to be discussed
later Children’s Films have not been as widespread in India as other genre of
Films. Considering India is the largest producer of feature films in the world
(about 1000 films a year), the number of Children’s Films it produces is
woefully less- just about a dozen or so.
Why the scene is not encouraging?
As I said,
the primary reason, why Children’s Films have not taken the fancy of mainstream
cinema producers in India is commercial: Children’s Films do not yield the kind
of income other kind of cinema does. There could be exceptions, but that is the
general perception.
There are
other reasons as well. Though India does not have dearth of stories, but there
is definitely a dearth of good screen play writers and directors to translate
the stories into watchable entertaining films. Making a Children’s Film warrants
different kind of sensibility and skill on the part of the director and of
course courage by the producer, both of which are in short supply.
What has been done?
The realization that Children’s Films are important and it
should be encouraged- dawned fairly early in India. Children's Film Society
India (CFSI) was founded soon after India's independence by Pandit Jawahar Lal
Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, whose affection for children is well
known. Pandit Nehru established CFSI with the hope that indigenous and
exclusive cinema for children would stimulate their creativity, compassion and
critical thinking. It started functioning from 1955 to produce, exhibit and
distribute quality content for children: from feature films, shorts, animations
to television episodes and documentaries. Over the years some of the brightest
talents of Indian Cinema – Mrinal Sen, Satyen Bose, Tapan Sinha, K Abbas, Shyam
Benegal, MS Sathyu, Sai Paranjpe, Budhdhadeb Dasgupta, Santosh Sivan, Ram
Mohan, Rituparno Ghosh and Pankaj Advani to name a few – have directed films
for CFSI.[1]
From 2014, CFSI has been organizing National Children Film
Festival. The first such festival was organized in Delhi from 14th to 16th
November 2014. An extension of this festival was Organised at Udaipur,
Rajasthan from 29th to 31 st March 2015.
CFSI also organizes biennial International Children's Film
Festival India (ICFFI) popularly known as, 'The Golden Elephant besides
organizing Children’s Film Festival in across the country.
Despite the efforts of the Govt. the sad fact remains,
Children’s Films scenario in India is not as bright and as vibrant as it should
have been, considering the fact that India has 400 million child (between 5 to
18 years of age).
What could be done?
The scene
could change dramatically if we are aware of the importance of Children’s films
not only in providing entertainment but in the overall development of children.
The Govt. is
doing its bit. It could do more, of course like organizing of help organizing
more Children’s Film Festivals, patronizing making of Children’s Films.
However, we,
ordinary citizens, members of civil society can probably do more about this.
We need to
encourage our children to watch good films meant for them. In an age of
Internet and social media they have access to unlimited number of kinds of
visuals, many of which are not good for them. So they need to be oriented to
towards good films, which are entertaining and also helpful for them. Parents
need to help their children in choosing the films they should watch. Parents
need not be overtly didactic. They should always have this mind that children
mostly watch movie for entertainment. So the entertainment quotient must be
high.
Civil
Society organizations, educational institutions may organize small Film
Festivals (these days it has become logistically and financially easier to
organize one) for children and also organize related hands on activities for
the children so that the fun quotient increases and children crave for more
such festivals. Creating a buzz around Children’s Films will make it more
attractive for the children and probably also for the adults, as it is often
said, there is a child in every adult.
***
Sanchar
Marg, Dhenkanal 759 001
26.4.2015
About the author: The
author a journalist turned media academician presently heads the eastern India
campus of Indian Institute of mass Communication (IIMC) located at Dhenkanal,
Odisha.
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