Born into Brothels

It was by a chance that I watched the documentary film 'Born into Brothels" screened at the Film festival here. This film revolves around the kids born and brought up in brothels located in Calcutta's red light area 'Sonagachi'. It was horrible to see the sufferings of these kids who are abused, insulted and sweared using filthiest of filthiest words. To make matters worse they are all totally ostracized by the society.

This film is very well documented by Zana and Ross Kauffman. Zana is a photograher who went to the red light area to study about the sex workers. During her stay she befriended their kids and started teaching photography to them. After a while she decided to take those kids out of the brothels and provide them good education. This film captures all her troubles and obstacles in getting those kids out of the brothels. She even raised money by auctioning the photos taken by the kids in New York and took a kid, Avijit, to Amsterdam for representing as child photographer from India. In the end she succeeded in persuading both the parents and the boarding schools for providing education to the kids. Being a foreigner, the achievements made by Zana in Calcutta after crossing all the bureaucracy hurdles is just amazing. I have no words to appreciate her accomplishments.

However the film does not have a happy ending, only one girl is still studying in the boarding school. Other childrens were either dropped out or taken out for business by their parents. I left the theatre with a heavy heart...

ilamayil varumai
migavum kodumai

See the review @ IMDB
Donot miss this movie if you get a chance to watch it.

ps1: To my surprise the theatre was filled with all Americans and apart from the core issue nothing 'very' bad about India was intentionally portrayed in the movie.

ps2: This film had won Oscar and several other awards.

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