“Anuja”: Sisters, Together, In A Cruel World

The Sanskrit literature background imbues the opening sequence of the film, which features Palak, the teenage elder sister played by Ananya Shanbhag, telling kid sister Anuja, played by Sajda Pathan, a story.

It’s a familiar tale for Indian children about a child, a mongoose and a snake, from the Panchantantra, an ancient collection of animal fables originally written in Sanskrit.

As the fable unfolds, in barely two minutes, the audience is provided the background and context for the next 20 minutes of the story. The sisters are orphans. Palak remembers the Panchantantra story recounted by their late mother. Ananya doesn’t – she was too young. The two girls are now on their own in the Indian capital, New Delhi, where they work in a back-alley garment factory owned by a boorish small businessman and run by a stern, cane-wielding supervisor.

In a teeming, unforgiving city where scarcity haunts the underclass, Anuja and Palak have something precious: each other.

The bond between the sisters – a relationship nourished by warmth, laughter, loyalty and sacrifice – is the central theme of “Anuja”. It will be put through a terrible test as the suspense-packed story unfolds, when the underage characters face choices that children should never have to make.

From the streets, a child actor with 'raw talent'

Child labour is a persistent problem in India despite government efforts over the decades to eliminate its worst forms. Indian law defines anyone below the age of 14 as a “child” and prohibits any employment of this age group. Children between the ages of 14 and 18 fall in the “adolescent” category and can be employed – except in hazardous sectors such as mining and flammable industries, including matchstick and firecracker factories.

India is a signatory to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating child labour by 2025 and has numerous NGOs working on the issue, including organisations founded by 2014 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Kailash Satyarthi. But with roughly 60 percent of India's 1.3 billion people living on less than $3.10 a day, the World Bank's median poverty line, an estimated 10 million children below 14 years are forced to work for sustenance.

The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation was among the handful of NGOs that Graves and Mattai contacted on a research trip to New Delhi. While they were all helpful in providing the US couple an on-the-ground understanding of the problem, the biggest breakthrough came from the Salaam Baalak Trust.

The NGO was founded in 1988 by activist Praveen Nair, shortly after her filmmaker daughter, Mira Nair, released “Salaam Bombay”, her acclaimed feature film set in the slums of India’s commercial capital.

The Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT) has a robust arts programme, and given its institutional understanding of the power of cinema, the NGO was able to introduce Graves to his main actor, the film’s show-stealer.

Sajda Pathan, a Delhi street child, was a beneficiary of the SBT and was enrolled in the NGO’s theatre programme in one of their shelters. When the NGO put Graves and Mattai in touch with young Pathan, they were floored. “We were totally blown away, she had raw talent,” explained the film director.

Joy and ‘magic’ in difficult circumstances

Pathan’s electric portrayal of Anuja, a gifted child surviving the streets of Delhi, has an authenticity that enables global audiences to grasp the complex socio-economic issues covered in a short, 22-minute film. These include poverty, patriarchy, income disparities, corruption, and above all, the power of a resilience borne out of necessity.

“We are really, really proud of what Sajda has achieved,” said Shikha Maini, an SBT executive council member. “Frankly, knowing her, we’re not really surprised because we know that she's a great artist. But it’s also for our other kids, it’s quite motivating for them. Our girls and boys in the other homes [SBT shelters] are also feeling very, very proud. It's a boost for all of us here because the arts are a difficult field to make a living. There's a lot of insecurity, especially in India.”

A psychologist and certified arts-based therapist, Maini chuckles as she recounts how Graves, a father of two, has been anxious about the effect of the film’s success on his lead actor. “I spoke to Adam. He was quite concerned that, you know, Sajda must be getting a lot of attention. I said, yes, she is getting a lot of attention. But I feel she is enjoying her childhood as it should be. She's pretty okay, pretty much the way she used to be. She’s very grounded and fame hasn’t changed her. She’s a very balanced child.”

While the film does not appear to have radically changed the lead actor, it has certainly affected the director. “I learned, in meeting the kids that were formerly working or are still working, and I was surprised, I'll be honest,” said Graves. “I was just surprised by how much joy they managed to create within these very difficult circumstances and how much fun, and kind of magic they seem to have.”

The academic-turned-director is philosophical about the content and form of his debut film. “I think we understand that in an ideal world, child labour wouldn't exist. But I wanted to humanise the decisions that contribute to the problem or contribute to its perpetuation,” he explained. “There are always decisions that take place within the context of very complicated circumstances, usually involving poverty. But I didn't want to tell a sob story because I don't think stories about victims who are defined by their past and have a passive victimhood are all that interesting.”

Regardless of whether “Anuja” wins an Oscar at the March 2 gala awards ceremony in LA, a world away, in one corner of New Delhi, a short film has touched the life of one little girl and inspired her friends and shelter mates by helping to give them agency in an imperfect world.

- Author: Leela JACINTO, France24