Bangalore, Oct 26 (PTI) “I want to change the 1.6 million black people in India who are human scavenging worse than Apartheid,” says John Devaraj, a Bangalore-based artist, filmmaker, activist and world peace crusader.
This multi-faceted personality is ready with his 71-minutes feature film, titled “Angels of Hell”, which is scheduled to hit theatres here on November 2.
“‘Angels of Hell’ is a powerful narrative about the life of a manual scavenger which highlights social and political exclusion faced by the manual scavengers in India.
“The film talks about the true life story of 12 -year-old Kiran and his parents who are manual scavengers. The movie highlights the stark realities of sewage drain cleaning and the innumerable problems faced by dalits who are mostly the ones forced to take up this job,” Devaraj told PTI.
He was also the art director for feature films, all of which received National Awards including “Kubbi matthu Iyala” {Kannada}, “Mane” {Hindi}, “Muthina Hara” {Kannada}, “Harikeya kuri” {Kanada}, “Hagalu Vesha” {Kannada} and “Nakkala Rajakumari” (Kannada, Children’s Movie).
Devaraj has written a letter, yet to be posted, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to release the film on Children’s Day celebrations in New Delhi.
“We would like to bring a delegation of children to present the film to you, which we request you to release,” the letter says.
Talking about the plot, Devaraj said the story is beautifully woven around the real-life character Kiran, who is born to parents employed by the Bangalore City Corporation to clean the drains, and is in love with a beautiful girl, who cajoles her to go to school. PTI BDN
