I follow the time very meticulously! So I take this opportunity to congratulate the Oscar winners. I was indeed surprised by few of the awards –Best Supporting Actress, Sound Mixing (!) and of course the big win Best Actor, but I don’t think I am a person with requisite knowledge to comment any further ( this is rarity). But the topic of discussion here is a different one. One of the images of the Oscars was the children of SDM- smiling confidently amongst the biggest stars on the Earth.
But no sooner did the honeymoon of the Oscars was over, there started circulating news of the abuse of child artists. One the children was beaten by his father because he refused to present himself to ever thirsty media! So how much our child artists are artists themselves?
Our film industry has seen many child artists who have gone on to become successful actors themselves (Aamir Khan, Padmini Kolhapure, Jugal Hansraj, Aaftab Shivdasani)
even singers like the great(est) Lataji had started as a child artist. In sports we have none other than Sachin Tendulkar who rocked the world at tender age of seventeen! But the question here is have we not learnt anything from TZP? Nowadays we continually watch many reality shows which use USP – the children. There seems to be over exposure to reality shows which use their main performers as children. Even some of the daily soaps have their protagonists as obviously-children.
The trend has been growing recently when parents started giving rather too much attention to the board exams. Children at the tender age of 15-16 are put to enormous pressure of the boards, where parents accomplish their (parents) unfulfilled ambitions through their own children. The performance at these exams is indeed important but is it the end of the world?
When I use to go to play the cricket at the ground, ever enthusiastic parents use to come to the ground to cheer their future Sachin! And we also have on similar lines other parents who have god gift of discovering Lata Mangeshkars, Kishor Kumars and A. R. Rehmans in young kids aged 3 to 4 . The funny incident which all if us must have witnessed when these musicians perform renditions of famous songs in their childish ways!
And the serious side of all is witnessed when these kids are subjected to the “Reality Shows!” even adults don’t have sometimes courage to face failure and even success so why should we expect it from these kids? At the time when they should be learning their trades they are forced to grueling competitions. Who is to be blamed? - Success hungry TV channels, blind parents or ignorant audiences? Well in my opinion all of us share the blame but I feel parents should take major chunk of it. I think performers must be well aware of the art which he\she is performing, so what a young artist would know about say philosophical songs? But the judges in these shows give their remark- “you understood the meaning very well!” It really baffles me what they exactly mean! Even the daily soap which has taken child marriage as a central plot baffles me whether it has been really able to convey that message well? Rather it has raised new issue of abuse of child artists-how ironic!
Even the Government has taken notice of this and had issued a notice to the producers of these shows. I feel terribly sorry for the little kids who are forced to fulfill the wishes of their parents. I think all of us should try to protect the present and the future of these performers. Otherwise, overdose of the competitions at nascent age, we may miss best of their performances of the future.
N.D.K. NIKHIL
