Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 12, 2015)

Soumitra Ranade grew up in a safe and happy Afghanistan. During his four years of schooling in Kabul, he'd read Rabindranath Tagore's Kabuliwala. Two years ago, he started scripting his version of the eight-page story for an animation film which has no resemblance to the Bengali or Hindi adaptations. "I've added my own fantasy to the story which wouldn't have been possible in a live action film," Soumitra says.

The film is one of the six projects in the National Film Development Corporation's (NFDC) Children's Labs, being mentored by three filmmakers from Europe, Mieke de Jong, Rasmus Horskjar and Anna Tamara Bos. The project is spearheaded by Nina Lath Gupta. The film has an Afghan telling a little Bengali girl, Mini, stories from China, America and other parts of the world.

"In the original story, Mini asks Kabuliwala what's in his bag and he takes out an Arabic horse. Since this is an animated film, you'll see the horse galloping around while Mini looks on in amazement," Soumitra smiles. "Also, it's important that children learn to not see Afghans as terrorists. That's the beauty of this story," he says.