Ramesh Kamath's 'Aa Vai Jaa Saa' making waves both in India and abroad

BENGALURU: With Children's Day around the corner, Ramesh Kamath's film Aa Vai Jaa Saa is making waves both in India and abroad. The first ever children's Konkani movie is the only movie from Karnataka to be selected for the National Children's Film festival organized by the Information and Broadcasting ministry in Jaipur on November 14. It will also be screened at the Chowdaiah memorial hall on Nov 13 in collaboration with children's right initiatives for shared parenting (CRISP), a city-based NGO working towards child welfare.
Kamath is a filmmaker of wide renown.His first movie Jana-Mana, made in 1980, was the first Konkani movie to be broadcast on Doordarshan.
“I want to do something for the betterment of children. These days, parents neglect their children’s needs or indulge them too much out of guilt. It is so easy for children to get misled these days, especially with mobile phones and technology. They need protection and care,” he said. Aa Vai Jaa Saa has four children from different backgrounds in the lead, who follow and epitomize the basic guiding principles of spiritual, scientific, secular and social behaviour.
Highlighting the issues faced by children, Kumar Jahgirdar, president of CRISP, says that they have a set of steps that they demand the government implement without further ado, one of them being the delinking of the women and child development ministry to make it exclusive for women.
“Children are neglected in our country despite constituting 40% of the population. Their needs are not considered since they are not a vote bank. We need more publicity and awareness to change mindsets in our country,” he said, adding that the apathy of the WCD ministry was apparent in that their records are five years old, without updated statistics in place.