‘A children’s film should truly dabble in their world as they experience it’

Tamil filmmaker Kamala Kannan discusses creating authentic children's film "Kurangu Pedal" at Indian Panorama Film Festival '23.

Tamil filmmaker Kamala Kannan on Friday explained how he went about ensuring that his film “Kurangu Pedal” sought to dabble in the world of children as they would experience it and avoid the mistake of imposing an adult perspective into the treatment of the content.

Mr. Kamala Kannan, who received from Chief Minister N. Rangasamy the “Sri Sankaradas Swamigal Award for Best Film” at the launch of the 39th edition of the “Indian Panorama Film Festival ‘23”, told the audience at Alliance Francaise that not only are children’s films a rare phenomenon in the industry, most cinema in this genre end up being corrupted by an adult frame of reference.

It was in such a situation that he felt that he should make a film that not merely passed off as a children’s film by casting child artistes, but come up with a cinema that tried to dabble in the world of children. “To share just one example, how an object like a cycle can appear to a grown-up figure and a child can dramatically differ in terms of their perspective. So, we wanted to go down to their level of experiencing life and for most of the film, literally using a lowered camera angle to match the line of vision of a child throughout the film”.

The film, which is based on a short story “Cycle” by Rasi Azhagappan, also reflects an attempt to immerse children of the new age in the simple joys of childhood in the 1980s, the filmmaker said. “It also appeals to adults of today by taking them back to their childhood... perhaps even making them feel like children all over again”, he added.

Kamala Kannan recalled that while the film itself was made on a shoe-string budget, “where the cycle was the superstar”, the way it was being celebrated by the young audiences during screenings across at least 150 schools so far was a reaffirmation that we could offer an authentic children’s film.

Kamala Kannan also recalled the efforts of sound designer Anthony Ruben to capture the natural birdsongs of the Erode-Bhavani-Mettur region where the film was shot, he said. “By avoiding the pre-recorded a template, the natural sounds complemented the visual experience perfectly”. The adherence to the local dialect also greatly added to the authenticity of the film experience, he added.

He recalled how “Kurangu Pedal” got a celebrity backing when actor Sivakarthikeyan who was approached to provide voice-over, liked the content so much that he agreed to produce the film.