How would one react if one spotted a neglected statue of Mahatma Gandhi? Ice Cream Pictures tries to answer the question through the eyes of an American tourist.
“Brian's Gandhi” is a 10-minute short film that tries to touch upon individual social responsibility. Brian Jennings (played by Brian) and his daughter Joan (played by Marion Gaufroy), on a trip to India, spot a broken statue of Gandhi at a road-side waste paper mart. Troubled, they wonder why no one else is worried about the state of the Father of the Nation. What they do with the statue forms the rest of the film.
“I wanted to do this film because I spotted a statue of Gandhi at a waste paper mart, and realised it had been there for four years. Nobody seemed to care about it, and this worried me. I thought it would be different to see what a tourist did if he saw the same thing,” says Saravanan.
An assistant director for the last six years, Saravanan says: “We wanted everything to look and sound real. The film will look as if the father and daughter weren't aware of the shoot. Brian Jennings, a special-effects technician from the U.S., and Marion Gaufroy, a student at Loyola College, seemed perfect to play the father-daughter duo,” he says. Ramkhumar, the film's script-writer, says: “It is to spread a simple message. Often it seems as if an idol has value only when it is placed in a particular ambience — say, like a deity in a temple.”
The statue used in the film is the same one that Saravanan came across. “We saw statues of other great leaders too. The good thing is, the school we show at the end of the short film has decided to keep the Gandhi statue — restore it and put it up on its premises,” says the director. “We just hope every school eventually has one statue of Gandhi to inspire youngsters.”
For details on the film, call 99504-27881.
