Against their wishes

IN DECEMBER, newspapers seized gleefully upon yet another episode originating in Hyderabad of a minor Muslim girl married to an Arab. Kaneez Begum, said to be 16 years old, had been sold for Its 20,000 against her wishes. As always, the reporting was one-dimensional. So it is appropriate to focus on Behind the Veil, a film made last year.

Projecting a distorted reality

Awerness-raising videos made for Western consumption are better not seen or shown in India. Though they strive hard to be politically correct, oversimplification and factual inaccuracies inevitably creep in. Neighbours -- The Life and Times of Yesudas Kemel, an educational package prepared for schools by ACTIONAID UK, a non-governmental organisation, is a case in point. Neighbours is the sort of film meant to provide development education to children in affluent societies.

Have lead, will damage

STAR PLUS began a new science and technology series called Equinox in December. The first episode -- an hour-long documentary called Heavy Metal -- dealt with lead. Though the first of the series was essentially on pollution, Equinox will look at a variety of technological issues in the weeks ahead.

Pitching in against AIDS

World AIDS Day in early December saw a rash of programmes on the battle against the disease, with Doordarshan and the satellite channels doing their bit to publicise the enormous degree of education and mobilisation needed to meet this killer head-on.

Pitching for sustainability in agriculture

TWO FILMS made by Krishnendu Bose and sponsored by INTACH, which were shown in New Delhi recently, make a pointed and absorbing examination of a current agricultural dilemma -- how do you achieve productivity without paying the ecological price of the Green Revolution?

12 film marathon spotlights urban decadence

THE FILM City Life is about everything that the title suggests. But it is so extraordinarily multifaceted and so exuberantly diverse, it defies all description. Twelve film-makers with highly individualised styles have each made a short film on a city the film-maker's choice. Their common theme is urban society. What the viewer discovers during a marathon, four-hour sitting -- all 12 are presented as one movie --fragments of human experience reflecting contemporary city life.

A not-very-subtle environmental message

A bitter prelude to salvation

THE WIDOWS of Vrindavan -- heads shaven, white sari-clad, their devotional routine veiling the indignity of penury and starvation -- have long been an emotive subject for photographers the world over. But who are they? What does their plight say for the status of women in rural Bengal -- where most of them come from -- and elsewhere in the country.

AIDS hits prime time on Doordarshan

1992 WAS the year when AIDS erupted on TV screens in a big way, prompted by the realisation that being coy about it was only facilitating its spread. Ignorance and preju- dice were both targeted for attack. On Doordarshan, it became a topic for prime-time discussion; on STAR TV, World AIDS Day was marked by a series of films in early December. On neither network did producers mince words, recognising that shilly-shallying can have deadly consequences.

Unheralded films feature development themes

THREE, thematically unrelated films though off-beat are of interest because they deal with ecological activism, alternate lifestyles and informal banking.