Bimba (Kannada)

Starring: Baby Raksha, Daisy Bopanna, Sudharani, Prakash Raj, Sampath Rajkumar, Sudha Rani, Master Shreyas,
Damini, Joe Simon, Rajendra Kumar Arya, Katte Ramachandra, Gundanna
Director: Kavitha Lankesh
Producer: Kavitha Lankesh
Music Dir: Isac Thomas Kottukapally
Lyricist: No songs
Singers: No songs
Distributor: Canal TV
Genre: Social, Drama

Synopsis
Indu (Baby Raksha) lives with Saroja (Daisy Bopanna), her mother: Aravind (Sampath Rajkumar), her father: and Arjun (Master Shreyas), her brother. She appears in the school play, attended by her mother, but not by her father, who is a college lecturer, and is too busy at work, to be able to come. In the audience is a film-director, JJ, “Jubilant” Jagadish, with his assistant. Next morning he comes to the house, and says that he was impressed by Indu’s performance in the school play, and that he is planning to make a film based on Indu, who will be the heroine. Aravind says that education is more important, but Jagadish says that the film shooting will only take 15 days. Saroja is keen that Indu should act, and finally Aravind gives his consent. The first day, they both go for the film shooting, but subsequently, it is her mother who takes her. The director decides that the name Indu is too old fashioned, and gives her a new name, Chooti. At first she is criticised by her teacher at school, for missing classes, then given credit when she becomes a celebrity, which she does. She becomes popular in the film industry, and is in demand. She meets a famous star, Raj (Prakash Raj), who takes a liking for her, and for her mother. Indu enjoys her acting career, but does not like some of the things that go along with it – late night shooting when she is tired, and stunts that are unpleasant.
There are two very significant scenes in the film. The first is when one morning, her mother drops off Arjun at school, and Indu gets out to play on the slide with the other children. The children are then called to line up for the roll-call. They run off, and Indu runs to line up with them. She stands at the back. There is no place for her. She no longer belongs. The second of these scenes is when she comes out of the house one day, to go off for film shooting, and Arjun is playing cricket with his friends. She wants to join in, but they don’t let her. There is no place for her. She no longer belongs.
She goes from success to success, the one of her films “bombs” at the box-office. She is no longer wanted for films. There is no place for her. She no longer belongs.
The rest of the film is about how she and her family adjust to life, and what happens after this.

Released Year: 2002
Running Time: 103 minutes/Colour/Kannada


Review
People are always wanting to categorise films. How would one describe this film – as an “Art” film? No, I wouldn’t, because an “Art” film is usually a film that is not easy to understand. Neither is this film a “Masala entertainer” that will appeal to the masses. But it is a film that tells the story of one “child artist”, in the film industry, and how it affects her life, and that of her family. It is very well acted, in particular by Baby Raksha, who gained a “Best Child Actress” for her role in the film. Daisy Bopanna is excellent, the mother who takes and looks after her everywhere she needs to go in her film career. Sampath Rajkumar strikes the right balance in the film, between supporting the family and his fears about the effect her film career is having on his daughter. Master Shreyas is just right as the brother, who loves his sister, and at the same time is jealous of her success. All the other actors are excellent in their roles, they are all “just right”. For this, a lot of credit must go to Kavitha Lankesh, the Story-writer, Dialogue-writer and Director, who started her career by directing a Documentary, “Deveeri” (1999), which one several awards. Bimba won a Best Screenplay Award.
There are two other outstanding features about this film, and these are the outstanding cinematography, and lighting – every scene is perfectly filmed and imaginatively lit.
Now how many stars does it deserve? It has an appeal to the more intelligent filmgoers, giving an insight into what happens behind the camera. It’s a film that tries honestly to tell what our young heroes and heroines have to go through as child-actors, and it tells that story very well. So I think it deserves:

5 stars

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]