Rasika Dugal has made a case for a Hindi children’s cinema that respects its audience enough to take a child’s questions seriously. As she prepares for the release of Little Thomas, the actor said the industry needs stories that let children “embrace their curiosity rather than dismiss it,” a phrase she used in a statement to The Times of India.
A child’s question, not a gimmick
Little Thomas, directed by Kaushal Oza, turns on the kind of question adults generally avoid. Seven-year-old Thomas wants to know where babies come from and wishes for a sibling. That curiosity becomes the engine of the family’s story rather than a single comic beat. Dugal plays Jessie Miranda in the film, which is set in Goa in the 1990s and follows the family through ordinary ups and downs.
The makers place the film’s tone in the lineage of Malgudi Days and Ruskin Bond: unhurried, observant and warm without tipping into easy sentiment. Dugal’s point is that this register does not have to be weightless. Children’s cinema, she said, can be “entertaining without being frivolous and meaningful without becoming preachy.”
Why a children’s slate matters
Dugal grounded the larger argument in the long arc of growing up: the films people watch as children shape the ideas they carry into adulthood. That is why she wants more filmmakers to treat the category as an opportunity rather than an afterthought.
Her appeal lands at a moment when children’s cinema is still a small part of the Hindi release calendar. When such films do arrive, they are often positioned as family events instead of stories built around what a child actually thinks about. The point is less about one title than about filling that standing gap. Dugal’s insistence on curiosity is not a niche concern; it is an argument about what the next generation of audiences learns to expect from cinema. How Little Thomas performs will be read as a signal for other small, observation-led family stories.
- The film is set in 1990s Goa and follows seven-year-old Thomas as his family navigates ordinary highs and lows.
- Dugal plays Jessie Miranda in a story told through a child’s perspective.
- The narrative centres on Thomas’s questions about where babies come from and his wish for a sibling.
What creators can borrow
For creators, the practical lesson is to start from a child’s real question and trust that the stakes can carry a full feature. The film tries to avoid the twin traps of talking down to young viewers and turning the story into a moral lesson. Little Thomas works because the question is treated as serious even while the telling stays light.
Dugal has moved between independent and mainstream work since her screen debut in Anwar (2007), with later appearances in Hamid, Manto and Lootcase. Little Thomas returns her to the intimate, character-first register that has often served her best.
Source: The Times of India
Comments