Indian Short Film Manjha in Slumdog Blue-ray Disc news
In a first of its sort, an award-winning Indian short film portraying the harsh life of street kids is being added as an exclusive special feature in the Blu-ray discs of Danny Boyle's Oscar-sweeping movie "Slumdog Millionaire".
What is significant about this black & white Marathi-Hindi short film "Manjha", directed by young director Rahi Anil Barve, is that it provides a shocking counterpoint to the feel-good climax of Boyle's film that swept award juries as well as viewers across the globe.
Both Blu-ray discs and DVDs of the Boyle's film, which has globally collected $200 million, can be expected to be surefire bestsellers because of its successful Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe run.
However, the DVDs of the film would not have "Manjha", which had won the best film award in the fiction category and the IDPA award for the best first film by a director at the 10th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) in January last year.
Boyle selected the film for inclusion in the Blu-ray discs of his film after he was particularly taken in by its fresh approach to the narrative format. He is believed to have watched the film as part of a number of Indian short films director Anurag Kashyap had showed him sometime back.
"Manjha is an extraordinary film. With little resources it is visually stunning and emotionally captivating," Boyle said on his decision. "I'm delighted to include Manjha on the Blu-ray DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire throughout the world."
"With little resources it is visually stunning and emotionally captivating. Surprising and gripping, it's everything a short film should be, and I look forward with great anticipation to the Director's next project," he said in his comments about the film to Barve.
While 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the Blu-ray disc and the DVD in the Western markets on March 31, in India Shemaroo  Entertainment will release the English and Hindi dubbed versions of the film on home video.
The selection has come as a real surprise for Barve, who is preparing for his feature film "Tumbad". "After MIFF, this film was not sent to any other festival, though it won an Apsara Award. I guess Anurag, who knows Boyle well, had shown him mine as well as many other Indian short films," he said.
Barve in this film has shown why he should be a man to watch out for. Shot in darker tones even for a B&W film (camera by Pankaj Kumar), adding to the film's noir mood, Manjha has the dark subject of child molestation. And the way Barve has plunged head on into it is quite outstanding. It is the story of Ranka, a street orphan all of ten years old. He makes manjha used in kite flying for a living, and he has to take care of his three-year-old little sister Chimi, who is somewhat mentally challenged. The child actor playing Ranka - sorry the name escapes me - is simply too good, confidently mouthing the street lingo not of the Hindi cinema kind but the kind one would actually hear from such homeless kids surviving on the streets of big cities.
A cop gets friendly with Ranka and takes Chimi on the pretext of buying her some sweets, only to sexually abuse her. Ranka finds her next morning at a construction site, lying half-dead, and the cop goes on to explain to him that such things keep happening, and it is best to forget about it and move on with life. But Ranka knows he has to protect his sister from monsters like the cop, and he takes his revenge, in the process losing whatever little innocence he has as a child. Made in SP Beta, the film is too dark for comfort sometimes, but Barve has not let the mood slip even for once.
