Udaan: A good Movie

Watched Udaan yesterday. Many people recommended it so at last watched it. A good movie on a subject rarely touched. Not much focus have been given either in the Indian popular cinema or in the alternate/art cinema to the subject of disturbed childhood, authoritarian parent (mostly father) when that is the reality in many cities, towns and villages of India especially in the middle classes.

I understood one more thing, that is parents don't know parenting beforehand, nobody teaches them. And may be it cannot be taught also. But I think some guidelines can be or are given nowadays. The specialists who work in the field of child care or the experienced parents might give more accurate information on this, not me. What all I can say is that the parents too learn parenting on the go i.e. when they have a child with them. And the important point when someone (including myself) learns something on the go is that you are bound to make mistakes. And here the mistakes are not affecting you only, they are affecting the child also that too may be for a lifetime, who knows. As one of the dialogues says in the movie

"ज़िन्दगी भर के लिए घाव दे दो पीठ पर, डरा दो बच्चे को, फिर माफ़ी  मांग लो..."

The situation presented in the movie might seem to be an extreme one, but going by the official ministry report (here) two out of every three children suffer one or another form of physical abuse (burning, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating or otherwise harming a child) and this is mostly done by the parents or the care taker of the child (both intentionally or unintentionally done). Though the list seems too strict for classifying something as physical abuse, but sometimes these small-small incidents leave a mark on the child for a long time and that's why it becomes so important to define it so strictly. But defining it like this might not be of much use as the incidents happen inside the homes where the children are very vulnerable and when it is done by the parents nobody is there to stand with them, except the state i.e. the government. This too happens in case the incident is reported which happens very rarely.

Coming back to the movie, it is a good movie. The actors (both young and adult) and the director have done a good job. Do watch it if not already.