Shaping children’s lives through relevant movies

Movie buff and mother of two, Shalini Sharma, loves watching Hindi and Hollywood films, but she believes that her young children need to be exposed to more intellectually stimulating cinema.

“The stuff that gets passed off as children’s movies and television shows is frivolous, preachy and sometimes inappropriate,” she says.

Then someone told Sharma about the screening of The Legend of Tillamook’s Gold, a kiddie flick at NCPA which she attended with her four-year-old daughter, Naina. “Both of us were enthralled and I was delighted to see Naina interact with other children at the screening,” Sharma added.

The movie, directed by Jane Beaumont Hall, was about a 14-year-old girl who stumbles upon buried treasure. And the person who brought it to the young audiences in the city is none other than veteran television producer and presenter Manju Singh.

Having captured the imagination of an entire generation of children with shows such as Khel Khilone and Ek Kahani in the 1980s, Singh is now quietly spearheading a movement that seeks to mould young impressionable minds through the visual medium.

With a strong belief in entertainment with a purpose, Singh has founded the World Kids Organisation that screens children’s films at the NCPA on the first Saturday of every month.

“My daughters, Suparna and Shalini, were growing up in the 80s and the shows I did back then were an extension of my relationship with my children. Now, my work reflects my equation with my four grandchildren who are between 8 and 11 years of age,” she says. Her son Gautam, a budding filmmaker, helps
in the selection and acquisition of Indian and international movies.

“We need to treat our children as mature audiences and kids’ films don’t have to be unnecessarily preachy or frivolous,” says Singh.

Singh is assisted by a small team of like-minded people who cull out the best of Indian and world cinema and showcase them at travelling film festivals. The organisation has also tied up with schools in Mumbai and Delhi for the screenings that usually complement the curriculum and are followed by interactions, debates and workshops.

Singh would like to reach out to more and more children not just in the city but also across the country.