If only he made the documentary in English, Dhanapal feels, Kalam's message would reach a wider audience.
Soon, the project became an 'ambitious' one for him. The reason: "I admire him a lot. I also found that not just Kalam but also his friends like Y S Rajan are visionaries, always interested in grooming young minds. You learn a lot from them."
Thus A Little Dream became a big dream for Dhanapal, a dream that had its beginning at Rameswaram and moved on to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
A Little Dream is a 'story-within-a-story' sort of documentary. It is the story of Sundar, an 11-year-old upper middle class boy who is an ardent fan of Dr Kalam. On his birthday, he takes a resolution to teach two underprivileged children in the evenings, which happen to be one of the ten commandments of the People's President.
Sundar's mother (played by Shobhana) is irritated when he spends his evenings teaching the two children rather than concentrating on his studies. However, his grandfather (played by Srinivasan) is very supportive. He tells the boy, 'Whenever you do something different, there will be resistance and the challenge is to find out how to overcome the resistance. Do you know how your own hero, Kalam, came up overcoming all obstacles?'
Thus begins the story of Kalam, beginning with shots of Rameswaram where he was born in 1931.
Image: More scenes from the 50-minute documentary showing the 11-year-old Sundar through whose eyes begins the story of Dr Kalam.
Also read:
'President Kalam on drums'
President Kalam's Sukhoi flight
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