Click to play videoWhen they play, they don’t find any friends. When they laugh, they laugh alone. A special child’s life is a struggle everyday. But there’s hope too. In a special series God’s Own Children, CNN-IBN explores how with some sensitivity and awareness, life can indeed be made special for the differently-abled children.
New Delhi: The representation of special children by the media has always been a contentious issue.
Filmmakers in India are increasingly ditching the picture-perfect protagonist for a physically or mentally challenged 'hero' and awareness campaigns are seen more regularly on TV than they were ever before.
But while Bollywood seems to have graduated a notch or two by choosing a physically or mentally challenged protagonist in critically and commercially acclaimed films like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black and Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal, media at large is yet to overcome its handicaps in this respect.
“There is a tendency to sensationalise and make everything melodramatic. Therefore a very serious issue becomes diluted. Melodrama and playing to the gallery is not what people want, specially the handicapped people,” says documentary filmmaker Mike Pandey.
Over the years, Bollywood has treaded the ‘special’ territory with acclaimed attempts like Koshish in 1975, Anjali in 1990 and Khamoshi in 1996.
The new millennium brought in a flurry of such films - from Black, a tale of a blind, deaf and mute girl, to Iqbal who bowled everyone over to Rakesh Roshan's blockbuster Koi Mil Gaya and Ajay Devgan-starrer Main Aisa Hi Hoon - clearly the stories of disabled who achieve the extraordinary.
Life for disabled children in India is hard, the society is cruel and the government callous. Do you know of disabled children who have been discriminated against or harassed? Do you know of disabled children who are winners? Write to us or send videos through MMS to 9873544444 or e-mail at citizen@ibnlive.com
However, some experts say that disability per se is not the issue for filmmakers. Greed is. “I don’t think it’s a s much about disability as it is a money-making gimmick for them. The only difference is that while some do it poorly like Tom, Dick and Harry others do it comparatively well like Black,” says Convenor of the Disabled Rights Group, Javed Abidi.
Recent potboilers like Tom, Dick and Harry and Pyaare Mohan - where disabilities of characters are weaved in for mediocre comic relief. - clearly don't help the cause.
But if Bollywood is still handicapped at portraying the physically and mentally challenged in a just manner, television soaps and the ad industry fare no better.
While many agree that there has been an improvement in the depiction of the disabled over the years, others say that the entire onus doesn’t lie on the media.
“I don’t think the onus to create awareness is on filmmakers, the onus is on every person. So we have to ensure that it becomes aprt of our daily-life discourse,” says media critic, Sohini Ghosh.
While most successful movies about differently-abled people play on the emotional chord of the underdog saving the day – a story done to death, but still sells - there is, clearly, still a need for the popular media to have a more sensitive outlook towards such children.
Life for disabled children in India is hard, the society is cruel and the government callous. Do you know of disabled children who have been discriminated against or harassed? Do you know of disabled children who are winners? Write to us or send videos through MMS to 9873544444 or e-mail at citizen@ibnlive.com
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