Emotions and mannerisms along with various intricacies and subtleties in the behavioural patterns of an autistic child has been captured beautifully on celluloid in a short documentary by a Delhi-based journalist.
Titled "I'm Special, My World Is Different", the documentary delineates the life of an autistic child Sunny D'Costa.
The six minute-long film captures Sunny in different moods and senses. He plays around with his sister, laughs with his mother, strolls around aimlessly in lawns and at times just stays quiet and observes quietly the noisy world around him.
"Sunny, like other autistic child is not bothered about what is going around him. He lives in his own world. He never responded to the camera. He was just in his natural self and I captured all his moods in my movie," says the director, Deepak Parvatiyar who claims to have researched for 10 years on autism before started working for the documentary.
Since then, Parvatiyar says he also started keeping a tab on Sunny's health too.
"I asked Sunny's parents about the doctors they were consulting, about his health and how he behaved at home. All this took me 11 years," says the filmmaker
Parvatiyar says autistic kids have the capacity to give unconditional love provided they are loved by others too.
"Autistic people have the capability to reciprocate unconditional love, care and other emotions if they are given the same. Parents at home and people in society should give them their space so that they can grow on their own," he says.
The director says he felt emotionally attached to Sunny since he knew the boy from birth.
"I was there at the hospital when Sunny was born. But that time he looked and behaved normal. But later I discovered that Sunny is autistic since he was two-and-a-half year old," he says adding Sunny is a very good swimmer and has now qualified for the nationals.
