Sex workers’ kids who make films for Youtube and more
The film-maker Bipuljit Basu collaborates with youngsters from Kalighat to make what he claims is the first participatory film in a red-light area in Kolkata, but more importantly, he provides them an opportunity to reimagine their lives.
KALIGHAT, in central Kolkata, is one of the most sacred pilgrimage centres in the country. As is the case with many other such destinations, right next to it there is a red-light area, one of oldest in the city. For at least more than a century, the sacred and the sacrilegious have existed side by side.
The Kalighat red-light area, located in the midst of one of the busiest residential parts of the city, is a shadowy, enigmatic world that stands on the periphery of mainstream society, which neither accepts it nor completely denies its existence. It is a nocturnal world of labyrinthine narrow lanes and cubbyhole dwellings; a world that appears sinister, brutal and violent, with its own rules and logic. It is a society whose very existence is unsettling to the “respectable” and whose inhabitants are trapped in it forever branded by a mark of shame created by the world outside.
In this grey world that exists outside the purview of middle-class morality, where no differentiation is made between the coins of the villain and the virtuous, a group of young boys and girls grew up with hopes and aspirations that until recently seemed likely to remain confined to their dreams. The film-maker Bipuljit Basu came across these youngsters while working on his short film Midnight Blues, the story of a little boy growing up in a brothel. They had formed a group called Cam-on and were making small films on the lives of people living in the red-light area and putting them up on the Internet. Basu decided to collaborate with them for his film and roped them in at every stage of the production, making members of Cam-on the line producers of Midnight Blues. This project is perhaps the first “participatory” film to be made in the red-light area of Kolkata and has opened up a window of hope and opportunity for these young people.
“From script to make-up, loca
tion hunting to grooming artistes, Cam-on members became an integral part of the film. This is a huge experience both for them and for me. For those boys and girls, this is their first professional project with veterans of film production and is a massive boost to their confidence. For me, it is a thrill to make what is possibly the first ever participatory film in India,” Basu told Frontline.
“We are often stigmatised for hailing from the red-light area. We want people to be aware that there is talent here as well and acknowledge that it is not just the dregs of society who come from here. There are many good people here who can go far with the right guidance and direction.
Working with Bipuljitda is allowing us to dream a new dream for our future,” said Raju Mondal, president of Cam-on. He is the oldest member of the group and has been a mentor and a teacher to many of the children of the Kalighat red-light area. He pointed out that though there were many non-governmental organisations working with sex workers’ children, nobody but those who grew up there could understand the life and the problems of the community. Cam-on hopes to identify talent among the children and young people living there and include them in its future projects. The group’s membership has been growing in the last couple of years: from six youngsters when it started out to 25 now.
In those little hole-in-the-wall rooms where a large, high bed occupies most of the space, members of the Cam-on group, like all the other children of brothels, grew up with the love of struggling mothers who refused to give them up. There is a painful yearning in them to be accepted for who they are and to not be judged for where they come from.
In many ways, the formation of Cam-on is what has saved the children from going down the path of self-destruction in such an environment. “Kids our age after a point tend to stray and fall victim to drug addiction or get into bad company. Just as we avoided those pitfalls and formed