The forthcoming 17th International Children's Film Festival to be held in Hyderabad will feature an impressive line up of Indian films, from the heart warming Stanley ka Dabba to Chillar Party and I Am Kalam . Along with these, the audience will get to see Dekh Indian Circus , directed by Mangesh Hadawale, the Marathi director whose previous film Tingya was sent to the Academy Awards as an independent entry in 2009.
Mangesh Hadawale moves away from his comfort zone of Marathi films and takes us to Rajasthan in Dekh Indian Circus . The director is elated that his film was the first ever Indian feature film to win the Audience Choice Best Feature Film at the 16th Busan International Film Festival held recently. This unpretentious movie about two children and a mother is backed by well known names in the industry — Vivek Oberoi is a co-producer, the music is by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy and Prasoon Joshi has penned the lyrics.
“I didn't think such big names would come forward to support me. Once Sundial Pictures decided to produce the film and I narrated the story, I got the support of Shankar Mahadevan, Prasoon Joshi and Vivek Oberoi,” says the director, speaking to us from a village off Junnar, Pune district.
The director divides his time between Mumbai and his hometown Junnar and speaks of the contrast between the two. “When I am in Mumbai, I see the progress in a big city and become part of what is called ‘India'. Back in my village, where drinking water is scarce, I know the real ‘Bharat'. It's an irony that multinational companies have made inroads into our village, peddling everything from ‘thanda' (soft drinks) to mobile phones to lipsticks. Our life has become a circus. I tried to bring in some of these elements into my film,” he says.
The idea of Dekh Indian Circus came to him when he spotted a woman and two children waiting in a queue and pleading with the security outside a museum in Pune. “I assumed that perhaps the mother couldn't afford tickets for all the three of them. I observed them from a distance. She remained outside while the children went into the museum. Immediately, I was thinking who she might be and her family background. A story took shape,” he recalls.
Mangesh spent a year writing the script and three months scouting locales in Rajasthan. Each of the six principal characters hinges on a different philosophy, he says. “I didn't want to make a message-oriented film that nobody would want to see. The audience will laugh out aloud watching this film but will go back thinking. It's a satire, like Life is Beautiful . It's tough to do a satire on a serious issue. You cannot afford to get it wrong,” adds Mangesh.
He wanted to highlight the urban-rural divide through a children's film because children absorb the truth easily. “People think it is easy to make a children's film. It isn't. We cannot take children for granted,” he says.
The film is set for a commercial release in summer 2012.
