To continue my run of Hindi films, I recently watched a movie called Siddharth, which was about a 12-year-old boy from a poor family, who disappeared after being sent off to a factory to work. The film ended up being very tragic, as Siddharth's family was never able to find him, despite their constant searching. Their search was made endlessly more difficult because Siddharth's parents had never taken a picture of him (or any of their children). Every time they went to the authorities for help, officers would ask for a picture, and , having none, the parents would describe their son. Sadly, each of these scenes ended with the officer saying "you've just described every 12-year-old boy."
I noticed two themes in the film: the difficulties and exploitation of India's poor, and the pressing need for Indians to adapt to changing technologies. The first theme was also prevalent in Water, although that film was set much earlier, and since the philosophies of many of the characters were linked to the rise of Gandhi's movement. In Siddharth, the difficulties of life in lower classes drive the characters to their limits. Siddharth's family sends him away to make ends meet with his added salary, even though they are aware that child labor is illegal. When they first go to the police, a female officer uses an informal address for the father (showing that class relations in this case will trump gender) and tells him that he should have sent his son to school, as the education, room, and board are free. The father seems unaware of this, showing that lower classes must face a lack of information as well as a lack of means to attain certain ends.
While the family's class made it incredibly difficult to look for Siddharth, the parents' lack of technological savviness was what guaranteed that they would not find their son. The father owned a phone, but did not know that he could take pictures with it, and only used it for calls. Every time the parents needed to use the phone, they would consult their daughter, who looked to be between 4 and 6. She and the neighborhood boys always knew what to do with the phone, but the parents' difficulties were a definite disadvantage. It was evident that the father was not as knowledgeable as he needed to be (literally with the phone, and perhaps symbolically with his search for his son), and this led to the failure of his search.
Little was said of technology's role among members of higher classes, but in the encounters with people from higher rungs of the social ladder, their success seemed to go hand in hand with their ability to use their phones to further their interests.
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