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Anant Gupta

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US AND THEM

US AND THEM is a story of a 15 year old boy, wedged between his own
little world and a demented society of prejudices. Abhimanyu, who
begins undergoing conspicuous changes in his body, is recommended a
blood test, which reveals that he is ! HIV positive. Unable to
comprehend the causality and consequences, both, at a juvenile age of
fifteen, Abhi shrinks in his own cocoon, only to become a reticent
young lad and embarks towards dealing with an inner strife. Incapable
of negotiating life through topical situations, the adolescent goes
through intense psychological and sociological trauma that leaves him
bitter, aloof and dejected. The orphan finds solace in his widowed
aunt who also has the onus to bring him up and helps him deal with it.
The HIV virus in a way becomes a passage through hell which leads him
towards himself, his life, his aspirations, his desires and his
purpose in life. The film traces this parallel tension building up
inside the same person where the disease is emptying him in a cadaver
and at the same time, the insensitive attitude of people around leaves
him emotionally starved for love and attention. The personal voyage
takes him into his past and his strife to c! ombat with the demonic
virus inside and the stigma outside. From a frivolous young man, Abhi
modifies in a person who dissuades self-pity and ceases to consider
himself, an underdog. He believes in living his predictable life with
a predicament, which would be governed by aspirations and hard work
alone. He visualizes and goads himself to set objectives against all
his physiological limitations. US AND THEM is a miraculous tale of
transfusion of a person waging a fight with all his fears and
limitations through his emotional strength, hope in cure and an
undaunted faith in himself.
Not melodramatic, yet a sensitive interpretation of this boy's
stoicism, US AND THEM is also a glimpse into "the other" world which
exists only by way of societal prejudices. The film is an
observational! report by being on the periphery of these two
communities, segregated and distinguished not by HIV but by attitudes.
The Docu-drama by no chance intends to preach, inform or educate the
audiences about HIV but is a sensitive rendition of a story, which a
percentage of people are living not only in India but in the whole
world, to induce and challenge the rigid, conservative and prejudicial
mindsets. It encourages thinking beyond the ordinary solutions of cure
towards hope through unison and indiscrimination to fight the HIV
virus. The film simply questions the ideological stance of people and
in a way appeals for a legitimate existence for these HIV patients.
It's also a tale of building of a character through the traumas of
adolescence and HIV and! at the same time building of a sensitive and
tolerant community of "US" to combat the HIV virus so that it doesn't
culminate into "THEM", a cycle of dreadful diseases that the HIV
patients are susceptible to and leads to AIDS. The film is his account
of bridging the gap between the whirlwind of voices within him and the
haunting silences around him.