Hindi cinema has long given children memorable scenes, but rarely the camera’s full attention. Rasika Dugal argues that a child’s perspective can carry a film as confidently as any adult protagonist. Her new release Little Thomas is built around that conviction.
Dugal’s observation is an invitation to look at the industry’s defaults. Hindi films have no shortage of children in the frame, but they often appear as emotional devices: a reason for a hero to fight, a source of innocence in a corrupt world, or a bridge between sparring adults. A child’s own logic rarely shapes the plot. Little Thomas tries to reverse that order.
What the film is about
Directed by Kaushal Oza and backed by Anurag Kashyap, Little Thomas stars Gulshan Devaiah and Rasika Dugal, with Hridansh Parekh as the title character. The story is set in 1990s Goa. Thomas wants a sibling and keeps asking his parents a question many children ask: where do babies come from?
That question becomes a door into a larger family story. The adults, Dugal says, are not always ready with a clean answer. Their hesitation is part of the drama, and the comedy.
The child’s world as the main event
Dugal, who plays Jessie Miranda, says Indian films often place children inside a bigger adult story. Her argument: “Their own experiences, questions and ways of looking at life can be incredibly compelling in themselves.”
The film, she adds, shows what a child’s imagination does when adult answers do not quite add up. Thomas’ questions put pressure on the grown-ups, who struggle to find “a child-friendly vocabulary… or any vocabulary” at all.
That is where Little Thomas moves beyond a simple comedy. It treats a child’s natural curiosity as something worth taking seriously, and it reads adult discomfort as part of a changing, post-liberalisation India.
The film’s period setting matters. In 1990s Goa, a changing India presses on family choices, aspirations and silences. Thomas’ questions do not stay small; they brush against marriage, adult vocabulary and the gaps between what parents want to say and what a child can understand.
That distinction is the heart of the film’s argument. A child does not need a contrived adventure to be interesting; the way a young mind works through an unanswered question is enough. The comedy comes from the gap between a child’s directness and adult evasion.
Why it matters for Hindi film
- Scarce perspective: child-centred stories remain uncommon on the mainstream big screen.
- Family, not just a child: Thomas’ wish for a sibling quietly opens up the ups and downs of his parents’ relationship.
- Period texture: the 1990s Goa setting and liberalisation backdrop give the question social and historical weight.
For audiences, Little Thomas offers a simple test: when a child asks a hard question, do adults answer, evade, or learn something? The result is a film that asks viewers to remember their own first questions, and to ask whether Hindi cinema has given those questions enough screen space. Dugal’s point is that the attempt is itself a story.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
Comments