‘NGOS don’t have enough cash’

A banker finds a new way to bring hope to the thousands who are HIV-infected

Mainak Misra wanted to be a cricketer like Sachin Tendulkar until Class VI, when Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami caught his attention. “My cricketing ambitions came to an end when I watched his film Taste of Cherry,” recalls the banker.

The self-professed ‘film researcher’, 25, has studied the works of over 100 directors from 30 countries. Since his college days at Techno India College in Gurgaon, Mainak has been watching a movie as late as 2.30 am every night. So, when it was time to make his first film, he drew inspiration from Kiarostami’s repertoire and Italian Neorealism (film movement that uses amateur actors, outdoor locations and low budget).

Titled The Virtue Of A Shadow, Mainak’s film chronicles the lives of HIV-infected children of a city-based NGO, Desires. He says, “I wish to convey that if the kids were shadows, then even shadows have lives; they also meet, separate and re-bond.” He spent `60,000 on the film, which was screened on World AIDS Day (December 1) at a city hotel, but has no plans to use it for commercial gains. “I want people to come forward and help these kids. Many NGOs are at it, but they don’t have enough cash to keep going,” notes Mainak. He plans to meet 15 NGOs next month, draft their woes into a report, and present it to state health minister D.L. Ravindra Reddy.