Recently, when Ira Kumble won the Best Film Award under the Junior category for her short film Tantia Bhil at the International Kids Film Festival, she was excited and happy that her efforts did not go waste. Ira is studying in class VI at S Cadambi Vidya Kendra in Bengaluru. Explaining what led her to participate in IKFF 2019, Ira says, "Last year, our school received the letter from IKFF asking if we can shoot a short film which will be screened at IKFF 2019. Since the teachers and principal had noticed my writing skills with my essays and poems, they asked if I can write a story for a short film. I agreed to it and started searching for a particular theme."
Ira thought that she ought to write something related to the Right to Education Act. When she was going for a walk with her dad, she saw a 10-year-old boy who did not go to school as his parents were poor and worked at a construction site. "I wondered why he could not go to school and study like other kids. Hence, I decided this boy would be the centre of my story," she adds.
The short film Tantia Bhil tells us the story of a boy who steals pens from his friends' bags. His friends are angry with him for stealing their pens. They decide to enact a play about losing their pens to teach him a lesson. After the play, he really feels sad and returns their pens. But one day, they decide to follow him to his home. To their shock, they see that this boy who stole pens gave them to a boy who is working at a construction site - and he loved to read and write. These friends narrate this incident to the school principal. And, the very next day, there is a new student in their class - the boy from the construction site.
The cast and crew of this film include Ira and eight other kids who are studying with her. Since they used to shoot the film after school hours, she and her team took around three weeks to complete the shooting as well as production work like editing, dubbing sounds, music, adding subtitles, etc. As per the instructions from IKFF, the films are supposed to be shot using a DSLR camera. To manage this, Ira borrowed a DSLR camera from her friend's father. In fact, he taught Ira about the functions of the camera in a day or two. Now, she knows when to take long shots, wide shots or moving shots. She says, "It was a good experience to shoot this movie. I think that every child in India deserves an education. If the parents are poor, they can still send their children to the government schools. Now, a lot of non government organisations and government school teachers are working to create awareness about education among the constructions workers, migrants etc but it will take a lot of time for people to realise that education can also uplift them from poverty."
