Raju Goes to Cannes

It’s a short film with a simple subject and a subtle message,one that would hardly interest the typical cinegoer. But for its makers,Raju is special,for it not only gave a new lease of life to a five year old kid from the slums of Kolkata,it also threw light on the rampant child trafficking that takes place in these parts and how adoption by foreigners is looked down upon. An Indo- German film,Raju’s been on a travelathon,hopping and winning accolades from one film festival to another. Shot in Kolkata,the film will be screened in the competitive short film section of the Cannes Film Festival,beginning this week. The film,which has been directed by German director Max Zahle and produced by Stefan Gieren,has city-based Taranjit on board as the casting director. She has also acted in the film. “I am acting as the director of the orphanage in the film,something that I enjoyed a lot,” says city-based Taranjit,who trained as an actor under renowned theatre director Neelam Mann Singh Chowdhry.

Raju,she adds,is the story of a five-year-old boy in Kolkata,who gets adopted by a German couple and how,on the second day of living with them,goes missing. “It’s after the investigation that they find out that Raju is not an orphan and his parents are alive,” says Taranjit,who moved to Kolkata some years back and now runs ‘The Creative Arts’,a theatre group in Kolkata. The film has also made it to the last five in the Student Oscar/ Academy awards,to be held in May.

The cast of the film includes popular German actor Wotan Wilke Mohring and Julia Richter,apart from a slew of actors from Kolkata. But,it was Raju’s character that had Taranjit searching for the right boy for two months. “We auditioned actors from all over the city but could not find the right look,expression or attitude,” says Taranjit. Finally,she made her way into the slums,the back lanes of Kolkata where she stumbled upon five-year-old Krish Gupta,for whom,she thinks,life has changed. The boy was living a life of poverty with his parents in a Kolkata slum.

Taranjit has also been appointed as the brand ambassador for an NGO that has been started by the film’s German crew. “Seeing Krish’s family and their neighbourhood so happy and in a better place,the director and his team have decided to run an NGO to help these children,educate them and give them purpose in life,” says Taranjit,who has also directed a documentary titled Goga Aunty,which won the best Pitch Award at Docedge,an Asian forum for documentary screenings in Kolkata.