Truly a tribute to the legendary film maker

“Harishchandrachi Factory” the 128 minutes movie depicts the passion and ambition of the great film maker Dadasaheb Phalke, the pioneer of Indian film industry, who made India's first feature film Raja Harishchandra in 1913. Though the movie is talking about the struggles Phalke underwent while making his first movie, it is presented in a most humanized way. The movie allows every single individual who is passionate about movie making to associate them to the central character played by Nandu Madhav.

 From the beginning till the end of the movie, it celebrates the themes of simplicity, dedication and charm of the central character.   The movie has a one linear story accompanied by an interesting way of narration which gives equal importance to all the characters, illuminating the massive potential of every character played. Though the movie reveals the struggles of a well known movie maker while producing his debut movie, there is no element of confusion either in the story line or in the style of narration used which distracts the viewers from watching the movie.

  Moving on to characters, we can see a strong desire to speak about the role and status of women and the attempt to break the stereotyped impression about the women , whose life need not be in the four walls of the kitchen. Saraswati Phalke character played by Vibhawari Deshpande in the movie demands a great deal of attention as she is there with her husband by helping him to take right decisions and showing immense support in fulfilling his dream. The two enthusiastic kids also grab the attention of the audience through their outstanding yet natural performance.

The settings of the movie, the back ground music used and different camera angles and shots have helped in displaying the struggle and effort taken by the legendary film maker during his journey of film making with a fine touch of humor. The last scene where the real the action begin by giving birth to film making industry does inspire those who are passionate about film 

There is an intentional effort of relevance about the title Smile Pinki.  The 39 minute documentary directed by Megan Mylan, talks about Pinki, a poor girl in rural India and several other children who undergoes a free surgery to correct their cleft lip. More than a creative piece the documentary can be considered as a small attempt to appreciate the charity works carried out by the members of the G.S. Memorial Hospital to help out the children living with severe cleft lip difficulties.

In our country approximately thirty five thousand children are born with cleft lips and most of them who suffer from this deformity are from economically crippled section. Though this malady can be easily corrected through a simple surgery, most of them are not aware of it. This film takes us to the lives of such children who are thrown into isolation and alienation and about those people who are lending a hand to help the children to overcome the deformity.

Pinki is a five-year-old girl from one of the poorest families in a village in the Mirzapur District, with a cleft lip. Pinki never knew it just need one simple surgery to wipe away the difficulties she went through until she met  Pankaj, a social worker who came to her village to assemble patients  to visit the hospital in Varanasi , where free surgery is done for all those who are born with cleft lip.

The documentary travel along with the protagonist as the surgery transforms her life to a world of joy and hope from the world of isolation and separation.As the documentary was an attempt to talk about the children with cleft lip and the hospital where free surgery is done to correct the cleft lip, the film did  succeed in gaining the attention of the people by focusing on one particular theme. The music used in the film brings the audience also with the mood of the film and the narration of the film from the desperate Pinki to the smiling Pinki makes the audience also smile.

 When we see heaps of garbage spread around, or the garbage bin brimming with waste or broken we don t worry much about it, it has become a common sight. It just reminds me the tagline where ever you go, am there, obviously the garbage I meant. Sometimes it is the lack of a proper garbage bin to contain the increasing garbage and sometimes even the garbage bin is not able to hold the garbage we throw around. Ultimately whose responsibility it is? We, who look around for a place to dispose the garbage (Oh yeah definitely not in our own place) or the concerned authorities who do not succeed in doing their work at the right time, ( If that is the reason)   thanks to official apathy for just being ignorant towards such issues. Occasionally the view of garbage reminds me something,   promises always remain as promises and those who speak a lot, do very little when it comes to action. No serious thinking happening, I was just talking about removing the garbage and transforming my, no our place into a garbage free place.

When we see these flowers  in the garden it looks like it is in the most unseen part of the garden, but my camera did find them to uncover the beauty 

One may think pottery making is an easy task , but it only 'looks' easy. Potters have to struggle day and night to make a pot. Today this ancient craft is dying a slow death leaving the future of pottery bleak. Lack of clay and other raw materials required for production and increasing production cost have posed threat to the traditional occupation.

When a group of friends got together and started Sukritham Girls Home with one girl, in the year 2006, it was a great challenge for them. But six years later they have been able to make a difference in the lives of twenty girls and today it is an institution wholly dedicated for the welfare of abandoned girls