The Oscar-nominated short film Anuja, Produced by Priyanka Chopra, is a film that doesn’t offer hypocritical answers to the global issues like child labour (read exploitation). Infact, the agenda of the film is not even to offer any single solution– if there is any one solution. Education as a tool to escape the dreadry of working in a garment factory is introduced. But, the moment when Anuja is about to make the choice, the text fades in: “This film is made in collaboration with Salaam Baalak Trust”, setting its agenda.
The agenda of the film is clear, which is to showcase the most (in)human conditions of urban poor who are being exploited by the industrialists, in this case, its textile industry. Two sisters, Palak (Ananya Shanbhag) Anuja (Sajda Pathan), are poor orphaned kids in rich Mumbai- which has been pitched to us as the city of dreams since immemorial. Anuja is an intelligent girl– who is exceptionally good at Math, Palak is a smart girl– who can deceive the managers and stitch her own tote bags with leftover cloth. They both try to make their lives better as their pan-chewing boss (Nagesh Bhonsle) tries to limit them. What happens at the end? Did they escape the never-ending-cycle of poverty? Nah, they shouldn’t, at least for the sake of western-vision hijacking the Indian poverty.
Anuja is a classic rip-off of western-gaze into Indian Poverty. The Indo-American makers (Written and directed by Adam J. Graves) didn’t want to offer any solutions, or complete the arc. Yes, it’s a short film. Not everything can be incorporated into a short. But, what is the purpose of making Anuja if the tale of Indian poverty is to be re-told which has been told many times. The labour exploitation is nothing new that we don’t know. It feels like this feel-good short film is curated for the westerners, by the westerners. In fact, Moreover, it feels like the feel-goodness is forcefully injected into the film for the sake of romanticised montages (shot by Akash Raje) of two poor children enjoying popcorn in a theatre. Anuja lacks the honesty that is required to make a strong statement on the issues like poverty, child labour, education etc.
Ironically, in a scene where the sisters giggles while reading out a matrimonial ad in a newspaper asking for a “fair looking” girl. That feels like we Indians, laughing at the western’s gaze of India that uses (or, exploits!) every chance to make humanised feel-good stories out of poverty. What a perfect ticket for the Oscars race!
Anuja is now streaming on Netflix.
