Stepping Into A Child's Mind: This Film By Satyajit Ray Offers A Unique Take On Adultery

Pikoo, a short film by Satyajit Ray made for the French television, was based on one of his own short stories, Pikoo’s Diary. It revolves around a child’s attempts to negotiate his reality in the midst of a failing marriage. A young boy from an upper-middle-class family, Pikoo lives with his parents and his bed-ridden, ailing grandfather. The film is entirely from the young boy’s perspective who feels let down by his mother when he sees her spending time with another man in the absence of his father. However, he fails to understand the full implications of the incidents in the adult world, and finds solace in his colouring book, using it as a creative release for his overwhelmed mind. The film depicts the little boy’s coming-of-age within an unhappy marital union, and the scars and trauma that such circumstances inflict on a young mind, too tender-hearted to grapple with reality.

A magnificent study of a child’s mind, Pikoo was made by Ray in the year 1980 at the behest of French independent film and television producer, Henri Fraise.

You can watch the film here.

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