Sandalwood director Nagaraj Kote’s film, ‘Baanaadi’ is about a boy who grows up in a village and lives with his grandparents because his father is based in the US. “The boy is sent to a government school where he doesn’t perform well and soon his father decides to put him in a boarding school. This is when the boy decides to run away from home and joins a group of vagrant travellers who also happen to be street dancers,” explains Nagaraj.
The boy manages to make a difference to the group by teaching them basics of language and how write their own names and gets them interested in education.
“The group not only performs but also begs for a living and the boy also gets caught in the begging mafia. The story is about innocent people who get stuck in the wrong place and yet try to make a difference to the lives of the poor and alleviate them from their state of misery,” he adds.
Nagaraj says the movie has been inspired by his earlier novel ‘Usiru’ meaning breathe but beyond that there is no connection. He states that there are a couple of lessons for people to take home after watching the film.
“Parents are always concerned about whether they should leave their children to grow up according to their like and give them enough freedom to understand good from bad or whether parents must control their every move,” Nagaraj adds. He also says that every child must be given a feel of the village life even if they are living in cities, “Most of the children who grow up in cities don’t know how hard it is to make a living in a village. This young boy, the protagonist, makes a difference to the lives of these street dancers by giving them a feel of education and making them feel worthy and not wasted,” he states.
Nagaraj has written the story, dialogue and directed the film as well. The film was shown at the International Children’s Film Festival which got about 1840 entries and only 180 films were picked up and ‘Baanaadi’ is only film from Karnataka to be picked up, informs
Nagaraj.