Briski, an award winning photo-journalist, who often visited India on other assignments began living in the brothels in 1998 and in 2000 invited Kauffman to join her attempt to capture the day-to-day lives of the prostitutes while at the same time handing auto focus cameras to children. While it is true that Briski has chosen a subject that highlights the poor and downtrodden away the glitz of life in urban India, the sensitive portrayal of the characters whose dreary existence transforms into giggles and smiles is an insight into the human soul. Briksi closely related to the children, whose usual destiny is to join the trade as pimps or prostitutes, as they learn to fiddle with the camera.

"They didn’t quite understand what I was doing there, but they were fascinated by me and my camera,’’ says Briski, on the Web site of the group she helped found, Kids with Cameras.

CNN has described the documentary thus: "the children become transformed by the art of the camera. Likewise, the viewer is transformed not only by the beauty and explosions of color their pictures show of Bengali life, but by the possibility they may escape their mother’s fate… It is through their photos and their interviews that the feisty, brutally candid, courageous and wickedly funny characters emerge and we are drawn into the beauty and dignity they find in their stigmatized and dire existence…. Stunningly emotional, but devoid of overwhelming sentimentality, the film released by Red Light Films and co-directed by Ross Kauffman, shows how much difference one person can make in an often intractable life.’’

The voices of the children echo beyond: "‘I want to show in pictures how people live in this city. I want to put across the behavior of man,’’ says 13-year-old Gour. "When I have a camera in my hands I feel happy. I feel like I am learning something ... I can be someone,’’ says 14-year-old Suchitra, who likes to take pictures of life on her rooftop. ""We went to the beach to take pictures. I had never seen the ocean before. I was amazed!’’ says 10-year-old Manik. Kochi, 10, a shy and sweet girl who worries that she "might become like them’’ uses her camera to take pictures of her family, animals, gardens, and parks: "I feel shy taking pictures outside. People taunt us. They say, ‘Where did they bring those cameras from?’’

One of the peeves of Indians is that when the western world depicts India, they like to do so in a few defined parameters — poverty, maharajas, snake charmers and elephants. Many in the west may talk of India as the emerging economic powerhouse, but when it comes to creative outputs, the thinking seems to be still caught in a time warp. A recent Hollywood fare Alexander (starring Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie), came in for particular criticism here for such stereotypical treatment harking back to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Harrison Ford, Amrish Puri), where Indians were shown to be eating brains of monkeys raw. Then there was the movie, City of Joy (starring Patrick Swayze) that showed Kolkata in all its squalor and poverty, highlighting the same.

While, it is true that some of the depictions are distorted, it cannot be escaped that India still remains a land of mass poverty which is the stark reality. It is not only western movie makers, but one of India’s greatest film maker’s the late Satyajit Ray, who won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement, came in for severe criticism for choosing themes that highlighted India’s poverty. To appreciate Ray’s achievement, it should be noted that Indian movies tryst with the Oscars have been limited to only three — Lagaan (2002), after Mother India and Salaam Bombay, that have won best foreign film nominations, though there is considerable talk here that this year’s release Black that has met critical acclaim and box-office success should make it for 2006. Earlier, Gandhi, an Indian and British co-production, contested in the mainstream category and won most of the top Oscars at the 1982 ceremony.

Briksi and Kauffmann have also expressed their fears that the documentary may never be released in India as they expect that there could be "trouble’’ (read, from the overnment) not only for the film but also protagonists as the filming was done secretly. They have decided against distributing the film in India for now. They also said they were honoring the wishes of women shown in the film, who wanted their identities protected. But, it is without doubt that the duo has presented reality as it is and not blown it out of proportion.

"The kids were so joyful,’’ Kauffman said in recent interview. "So full of life. That beauty and that joy was what attracted me to the project. I knew right away that this was not a film about ‘poor depressed young children in Kolkata.’’