Reality Check

I decide to have an evening outing, drawn out by Bangalore's genteel weather. With a friend I visit a photographic exhibition on child labour. The photographs exhibited are part of a project called 'History Expediton' and have all been taken by street kids between ages 10 and 18. These kids picked up from the street (rag pickers, pick pockets, etc) and NGOs and trained in still photography at the Born Free Art School, Bangalore cycled 4000 kms and took about 25000 pictures. While they were clicking whatever to their judgement looked relevant they also collected background information and bio-data of their subjects. The result, after painstaking sifting and editing, is a poignant compilation of kids - underfed and overworked, broken toothed and tender hearted.

I see snaps of little girls plucking out stems from red chillies, carrying stocks of wood, working in the fields. Then I set my eyes on scrawny boys working in garages, laying bricks and wielding sledgehammers. They've made sure the photographs are life size. They already are life like - huge things hanging from the walls beckoning me to have a look at 'India Shining'. They aim at the viscera. I wonder if they had gone inside homes they would've found thousands of little domestic helps. And then they could've taken the photos of respected, dignified gentlemen who employ them without even teaching them to read and write.

We all know many such mass graves exist. We just hope we never stumble upon it. I come back with a set of photographs as a token of remembrance, willing to be disturbed on some other balmy Bangalore evening.

We feel, my friend and I, we still haven't been entertained. So we go for a Danish movie at a film festival being held at Pallavi theatre. The movie is about the world of journalism and politics, and how the two are so inextricably and so unscrupulously tangled. In the movie I see that 'honest journalists' are a misnomer and politicians at best are not absolutely corrupt. A rookie reporter, with an influential father and expected to be pliable to pulls from above, is mysteriously handed out scoops and the editor, rather too generously, puts them on the front page. And when the same reporter decides to see more than what meets his eye, he digs up some nasty skeletons, then loses his job, then realises his dad is also one of them - the bad guys. All in the space of 3 days of honest, ethical news reporting! There is a brilliantly shot footage of the main protagonist being coaxed by his father to apologise and salvage his career. Its then we see a son coming out of his father's shadow, shocked and bitter that his father is just one more link in the chain he's trying so hard to break.

I wonder if the same happens in our country, if our front pages are full of scoops planted there for a reason, if our news channels continuosly drum out slanted perspectives, if those aspiring to pursue serious ethical journalism are fighting a lost cause, and if they'll become the very movie chracters they revolted against.

I find this movie a little more hard hitting than what the pamphlet hinted at. Maybe they should've printed it in bold. Why do we watch such movies?

For awareness? No, we're already aware and even if we're not what difference shall we make?
For entertainment? Surely no. Atleast I respect all those who make no pretensions and eschew watching movies which leave you disturbed.

But then there's no reason to lose sweat over. I've seen many such realistic portrayals and I am sure there are many more to come. I am dwelling in excess and things are getting to my head.

My friend and I agree the movie was great and part our ways, not sure about how enjoyable the evening had been.