I IS FOR INDIA

This Indian film is partly based on Mark Heddon’s novel The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night Time. And, according to the director, also on indian writer Bankim Chandra Chattyopadhyay’s story Cat. I found the story loosely translated, and it appears that the protagonist in the latter thinks that the cat is reincarnated duke Wellington. Meanwhile, the dog in Curious Incident was named Wellington. Did Heddon read Chattyopadhyay? And did Duke Wellington listen to Duke Ellington? The question can only be answered by the Cosmos. Which, in the case of this film, is the name of the pregnant cat who gets poisoned, prompting Kia, a girl on the autism spectrum, to solve the murder.

Just like with the novel, and perhaps even more so, because Ritwika Pol made it all the more urgent with her spectacular acting in the role of Kia, I was fully there with the protagonist, and confused by the world of mean grown-ups. And even more reassured in the concept of neuro-diversity: people on the spectrum understand the world much better and without unnecessary bias than those off the spectrum.

Kia and Cosmos, 2018
Director: Sudipto Roy

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