It's no child's play

Director and theatre artiste K Suchendra Prasad has always closely monitored issues related to children, especially those pertaining to child rights. His travel across the State and stint with projects associated with UNICEF gave him an understanding of how child rights have been violated in several sections of society.

He has seen up close the hardship, suffering and exploitation of children. The director has, in fact, consolidated what he witnessed in his latest project, 'Sandigdha'.

Suchendra says that after his travel he understood that child rights existed only on paper and that nothing substantial was done to alleviate the suffering of children, especially in the urban areas. "Several issues such as child marriage and child labour have been dealt with in this film. The basic message that we intend to send out to people is that children too, just like adults, are entitled to equal rights in all aspects," explains Suchendra.

He adds that the film takes a hard look at the rights that exist on paper and what has actually been implemented. Suchendra further states that the story is told through the eyes of a school-going girl called Sahana. "The eldest among five siblings, Sahana's family is poor. Her parents force her into marriage and this brings to fore a lot of issues and raises a lot of questions," he adds.

Suchendra says, "We have thrown light upon malnutrition among children, intellectual bankruptcy in the contemporary education system, the identity of the child being lost, hypocrisy of the bureaucracy and shortcomings in policy formulation and implementation." 

The film has roped in some of the seniormost actors in the Kannada film industry. There is Venkat Rao, Dattatreya H G, Avinash, Rangayana Raghu, Sudharani, Ramesh Bhat and M S Umesh, B Suresh and Dattatreya. "I have, over the years, worked with all these senior actors. They all willingly came on board after they understood the seriousness and relevance of the issues related to child rights," adds Suchendra. The film has been shot in and around Bengaluru.

Suchendra says that he hopes this film will inspire the powers that be to form a commission exclusively for child rights and problems related to children.