‘Little Terrorist’ may do the big feat : Bollywood News : ApunKaChoice.Com


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‘Little Terrorist’ may do the big feat
18th Feb 2005 18.07 IST
By Nitika Desai

Ashwin Kumar’s 15-minute film Little Terrorist was released in selective theatres on Friday. After watching the film, one cannot help admitting that it stands a very good chance of winning an Oscar this year.

The film chronicles the tale of a 10-year-old Pakistani boy, Jamal, who crosses the fence at the Indo-Pak border to get back his cricket ball. He crawls underneath the barbwire fence, snakes his way through the landmines to reach his ball. That is when the sentry on the borderpost spots Jamal and fires shots. The little one runs off into the nearest village where he finds an unusual ally in a Hindu Brahmin Bhola. But then the security forces descend on Bhola’s village looking for the ‘Little Terrorist’.

Beautifully conceptualized, the story of ‘Little Terrorist’ is simple and has many undercurrents. From one perspective, the movie shows the desensitized approach of security forces (who label Jamal as a ‘terrorist’), and from another, the movie shows the good in the hearts of common village folks through the character of Bhola.

The character Jamal aka ‘Little Terrorist’ is played by Salim, a street child from the 'Salaam Balak' Trust, which was established by film maker Mira Nair after the success of her film ‘Salaam Bombay’.

The role of the compassionate school teacher Bhola is played by Sushil Sharma, a clerk in the Delhi electrical supply company, who has been part of the Delhi theatre scene.

Written, directed and co-produced by Ashwin Kumar , son of Indian fashion designer Ritu Kumar , ‘Little Terrorist’ was made at a skimpy budget of 15,000 pounds.

‘Little Terrorist’ has already awards at the Tehran International Short Film Festival, the Flanders International Film Festival, the Montreal World Film Festival and the Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival.

There is a good chance that the ‘Little Terrorist’ may do the big feat on Feb 27 by winning the Oscar for Best Short Film.

Keep your fingers crossed.