ಅರಸನ ಮಗಳು A King’s Daughter

Here is a beautiful short film on Children in quarantine, made by @kakve-shwetha.

Having the advantage of watching this short in making, below is the explaination of the subtle ideas that might be not be apparent on first viewing. So, Spoiler alert! Please watch (and “like” if you do) the video before reading further.

Film opens with the child looking out a window, we dont know how long she has been this way, but she seem perfectly at peace with being still and pensive. Just like that, she moves with conviction, she knows what must be done next. It is time for a change. She changes from black & whites to active, colouful Indian attire. We see her hop-skip, miss a step, fall, pick herself up. Dig a hole and plants seeds, she plucks some bougainvillea that are out of her reach. Climbs a tree, pretends to cook a meal. She calmly eats her snack, again, silent and seemingly reflecting, enjoying the act of chewing it. She practices writing in Kannada, there is a small mistake. It is evening, she lights a lamp, offers the bougainvillea she plucked earlier to God, even though it is custom to not to offer bougainvillea. She practices reading, there are small mistakes. She wants feedback on what she learnt. She is happy she is “done“. It is night, She is happy she can spend “tomorrow” the same way she spent “today”, without school. She is looking at stars with with her mother (implied) crickets singing in the background and asks one more question.

Throughout the short, every act of the child has some minor error, a mistake here, a mistep there or a break of tradition. She is doing and learning, her own way.

The tittle of the video isn’t “Princess”, it is “King’s daughter” implying inheritence. Every child has the birth right to learn and live at her own pace. It is taken away by the rush imposed by modernism. Every child is a King’s daughter. Many are only discovering it in this lock down.

We dont see the face of the child. She represents every child. The intention is to have the viewer see his/her own child in the actor, this illusion is left unbroken.

The film ends not in an answer from parent, but one more question from the child. As it should be, her curiosity is never ending. In the last frame we see the importance of allowing time and opportunity for the child to experience solitude, pensiveness and boredom. These are catalysts for self enquiry and the growth of self-worth, an identity, “ಸ್ವಯ“. Boredom kindles creativity. The rush of the exhausting “busy ness” imposed by modernism has deprived the child of these necessary catalysts. Years of quarantine from her natural self has now been lifted during the lock down; finally free to experience living and learning how it should really be. The question itself “were there more stars” has deeper implications. Did we parents, have a richer childhood than kids? The change in “stars” has gone unnoticed, at least by the adults; no questions are being asked.
Was is better when parents were growing up? was it as styfling as it is now? Are there more stars to reach for, than what kids see? Perhaps stars will increase in number if parents counted them along with their kids, once in a while.

PS: This video was entered into a contest with Amrithdhara Goushala as the beneficiary, an institution dedicated to protect and popularize the “Kasaragod Gidda” cows. A breed of small cows native to south India.

To make a donation to Amrithdhara please visit: http://www.goulokabajakudlu.in/contribute/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.