Having been associated with the making of Chillar Party , the winner of the 2011 National Film Award for Best Children’s Film, as a cinematographer, the director of Shortcut Safari — to be screened at the ongoing National Children’s Film Festival (NCFF) at Siri Fort auditorium in New Delhi, Amitabha Singh, is at ease with the genre of children’s films. He hits the nail on the head when he comments, “I do not treat the child as a child and that is the basic premise from which I proceed. Children in the present age and time are completely confident personalities who have certain bandwidth, exposure, ability and experience. In fact, the child does not treat himself as a child.”
Contrary to the general perception about working with kids, Amitabha admits, “Frankly speaking, I enjoy it. I think working with them is my most comfortable and enjoyable space. It is a delight to work with such fantastic talent. We gain life and learning from them. In fact, I feel rejuvenated.” No sugary statement; simple heartfelt words.
Shortcut Safari is an adventure/mystery film wherein a heterogeneous urban group of school-going children –– three girls and four boys who are intuitively dependent on modern gadgets — get stuck in a jungle during their nature day outing due to vehicle breakdown. “I purposely and intentionally depict forest as a friendly entity. The reason being that I did not want the children to perceive the forest and wildlife as dangerous. Conversely, I wanted the audience to embrace the flora and fauna of the jungle instead of feeling threatened,” explains the director.
The film’s child artists were chosen from Ahmedabad after observing them at work and play in the school. “We identified those who were naturally close to the characters. The selection was made without making them conscious about the process,” says Amitabha. Interestingly, he chose to shoot by saying “behave” instead of the traditional command “action”. Conscious about not hampering their academics, the film was shot during vacations and holidays with the entire shooting being completed in 38 days that too between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. barring two days of night shoot.
“I believe NCFF will attract the best of the talent to come forth and contribute given the fact that technology and equipment is accessible and affordable for filmmakers. It holds a bright future for children’s cinema as they are deprived of quality content for their age. They have to settle for software from abroad or for adults since they do not have a choice,” says the filmmaker. He observes that the limited choice forces a change children’s taste. “The truth is that they do not get sufficiently apt content.”
Amitabha believes that children’s films depend heavily and largely on its creative strengths. “There are no stars or celebrities, hence the creative aspect has to be strong,” he comments, adding, “Iranian films are very good in this respect.”
Asked about the lack of scripts to make software for kids, he says in the last five-six years, there has been a conscious attempt by writers and institutes to develop good scripts. In future, he feels, there will be no problem in this aspect.
