Fleetingly scary

Film>> Tobacco, Threat to Life and Development directed by Mike Pandey 12 minutes

From May 31, it was announced, all tobacco packets would have to bear pictorial warnings on the ill-effects of using tobacco. Mike Pandey released his film, Tobacco, Threat to Life and Development, on that day.

There have been several documentaries on the ill-effects of smoking. One would have expected a documentary made for a special day to be a little different. But one comes back from the film with a sense of deja vu.

Young boys, barely out of their teens, taking the fag. Mothers smoking hookah pass on the smoke to the young ones. Haven't we seen all this before?

The problem is well-stated. But Pandey does not get us to feel for his characters. We do not get to know how tobacco abuse has changed lives of the consumers.The images of people with sores on the side of their faces due to oral cancer look scary. But they are not powerful. The family of these victims too must suffer. But we get to know very little of them.

One also gets the feeling the film is trying to do too much in 12 minutes. It tells us how a lot of money is spent on health care and how different bodies and legislatures have come up with the goal to deal with this problem. It's like reading an X1th grade textbook. I would remind myself not to smoke too much, but only for some time.

Since when did an X1th grade textbook have more than a fleeting impact?

Diya Das is a student of zoology at Delhi University