‘Hum chaahte hain ke log hum par naaz karein’

Twenty-five underprivileged teenage girls—many from the Dharavi and Kandivali slums and some rescued from brothels—have made five short films, on issues ranging from dowry to the problems of the girl child, that were screened on Tuesday.

When fifth standard dropout 17-year-old Shabnam Khan discusses camera angles, she is not just talking close-ups and zoom-ins, she is actually telling you that she sees her future in the frames. Similarly, 17-year-old Neha Belkar from the slums in Dharavi knows how to weave the narrative in a way that will wrench your heart.

Shabnam and Neha are part of a group of 25 underprivileged girls—many from the Dharavi and Kandivali slums and some who were rescued from brothels—whose nascent efforts at filmmaking will see fruition on Tuesday at the Manek Sabhagriha auditorium in Bandra when their five films, four of 10-minute duration and one seven minutes long, will be screened.

An initiative of a clutch of NGOs and others, who include Laadli, MAM movies, Uncle free coaching classes, Apne Aap, LEARN and Bombay Cambridge School, the 25 girls learnt the ropes from filmmakers Sudhir Mishra, Madhur Bhandarkar and Ashok Pandit in 45 days.

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The girls have made films on issues ranging from dowry to the problems of the girl child. Sixteen-year-old Pranati (name changed), who has made a 10-minute film on the rescue of a girl from a brothel, has herself undergone the trauma of being kidnapped and serving in bondage in such a place.

Pranati’s story travels to a distant village where a little girl lives her little dreams until the bulwark of the family, the mother, dies leaving the children rudderless. The father is disinterested; in this situation, two men walk in and promise the stars. They con the girl into taking a train to the big city, Mumbai, and then she wakes up in a bordello.

Another group of girls from Dharavi led by Neha Belkar, Shaikh Ayesha, Shabnam Khan and Renuka Gajakosh have made a movie about a dialogue between an infant boy and a girl and the story of the little girl who fears what is in store for her: perhaps, she will end up washing dishes, cleaning the house and doing menial work instead of studying and making her parents proud. The 10-minute movie is named Naaz. “Hum sab chaahte ke log hum par naaz karein (We want people to be proud of us),” says Neha, an HSC student of KMS night college at Dharavi.

Then there is a story about a girl in a womb and her first person account as she watches her family go into a spin after they hear the news of the pregnancy and how the girl is suddenly not sure in the next few weeks if the dissenting grandmother will prevail. Eventually, she is aborted.

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The girl child and the troubled times she lives in is the central theme of most of the movies, all of which have a common theme song sung by a 13-year-old budding musician, Raj Pandit, son of Ashok Pandit. The song talks about hope for the girl child.

“The artistes who performed in these movies are all neighbours and relatives of the girls. These girls now say we are filmmakers,” says Madhusudan Agarwal of MAM movies who learnt his trade in San Francisco, US.

So enthused are the veteran filmmakers by the girls’ efforts that they have already decided who the next batch of 25 girls will be for their next session of filmmaking. “Daughters of police constables and BMC scavengers and sweepers will form our next batch,” says Ashok Pandit who along with other filmmakers and NGOs conceived the idea of teaching filmmaking to the girls. “We are also planning to recruit some of the girls into the mainstream team for big movies as assistants in handling cameras, scripting and other aspects of filmmaking,” says Pandit.