Patna: Everything about this film is small and short. ‘The Mask’, a three-minute-long children’s film made by 15-year-old Santu Kumar has been short-listed for the forthcoming International Corona Short Film Festival in New Delhi in December.
It has been made by Santu, son of a Patna-based four-wheeler driver with help of other children of ‘Kilkari’, an organisation established by the education department in 2008 to explore the creativity among the children from poor families, The New Indian Express (TNIE) reported.
“Kilkari, established in 2008 by the department of education in Patna, is dedicated to children of privileged and poor sections to help them in cultivating their creativity,” Dr. Jyoti Parihar, Child-rights activist and director of Kilkari was quoted as saying.
‘The Mask’ has been directed and scripted by Santu Kumar, along with other children – Santy Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Jeetu Kumar, and Rahul Raj Gupta. “In this film, it has been shown that if we lose our job, then we can still be self-reliant of our own”, she added.
Santu Kumar said he took help from five children of Kilkari and spent five days to make the short film on the importance of wearing of mask during the pandemic, reported TNIE.
Santu has also acted in and co-directed some other short films after being associated with the Kilkari. He expressed happiness over the selection of his film at the international level saying that it would inspire him to make more films, the report added.