Nagraj Manjule’s Jhund is remarkable on many counts. But most of all it will be remembered for extracting the lives of impoverished slum kids from Mumbai. Tragically it is most likely that their seven-minutes of fame will begin and end with Jhund.
Yes, at the moment everyone is talking about the Jhund kids and they even got to meet Aamir Khan who after watching the film hugged them all, one by all. But is that all they get? Does their fame begin and end with Jhund and Aamir Khan’s hug? Does anyone remember 12-year-old Shafid Syed in Mira Nair’s glorious tribute to the street kids of Mumbai Salaam Bombay? Shafiq attained the peak of fame at age 12, did one more film Goutam Ghose’s Patang and then returned to his life of anonymity. He ended up an autorickshaw driver in Bengaluru. Which is not a bad thing at all. But quite a long way from what life was expected to deliver to Shafiq after Salaam Bombay, no?
Garth Davis’ Lion in 2019 put the spotlight firmly on eight-year-old Sunny Pawar who was feted, celebrated and interviewed by the American press like a superstar. Little Sunny who came from a financially challenged background, found himself surrounded by the most incredible adulation. During a roundtable discussion by Hollywood Reporter when the celebrated actor Casey Affleck was asked whom he would like to take with him if marooned on an island he mentioned Sunny’s name. Such global fame, recognition and adulation for an Indian actor of any age was unheard of. But the fame began and ended for Sunny after Lion. Although he did play the central character in another film Chippa, Sunny went back to his life of poverty and anonymity after Lion in which he proved himself a better actor than Dev Patel who played the adult version of little Pawar.
There was another brilliant street kid Tathastu in Nila Madhab Panda’s Halka who was a fearless natural before the camera. As natural as Sunny Pawar in Lion. So impressed was Aamir Khan by Tathastu in Halka that the Superstar sent the little boy a note congratulating him on his performance. The note is all that Tathastu has. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire put Mumbai’s slum kids Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail on the world map. The well-meaning Boyle had told me how working in the slum areas of Mumbai, he found the kids to be bright, intelligent and generous. Boyle earnestly wanted to help them. And in fact, a trust was set up for the slum kids. But the good intentions never quite translate into a good life for slum kids who are used in high-profile films, then forgotten.
The only exception that I am aware of is Sudhir Mishra who signed the underprivileged child Sikandar Aggarwal for Tera Kya Hoga Johnny, and was determined not to let Sikandar revert to his old life. Sikandar was from an impoverished family in Jharkhand. But he had immense talent and a sharp mind. Sudhir saw him in a Bengali film Shadows Of Time directed by German director Florian Gallenberger. Sikandar vanished after that. But Sudhir found the boy, working as a camera assistant in one of the dingy studios of Kolkata. Sudhir took charge of Sikandar. He couldn’t adopt Sikandar legally as he was too old (17) for adoption. But Sudhir gave him everything that he would have as an adoptive parent.
As creative people Sudhir feels a filmmaker’s responsibility goes beyond entertainment. I would presume Nagraj Manjule to possess the same level of commitment as Sudhir Mishra to using cinema as a tool of social reform. I hope and pray the Jhund slum kids don’t go the Salaam Bombay way.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He's been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
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