The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical

The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical (official site here) is a documentary about the lead up to a musical performance by children from slums in Mumbai, accompanied by the Bombay Chamber Orchestra and taking place at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
As with most documentaries, we meet the stakeholders involved in the story. Some of the children, their families, their teachers, members of the orchestra, the Viennese conductor who makes the trip to India to work on this project, and the environment from which the children come to the locale in which they will be performing.
This documentary gives an account of the childrens' lives and their journey to the performance date. It really just tells the story of who they are and what happens, but only delves a little bit deeper into the issues that could be really compelling. I believe it is obvious that this opportunity is a once in a lifetime chance for the children, even if they did not live in the slums. For any child to perform on a National stage is something special, so although this part of the story warmed my heart, it was not compelling enough to have me think that this is a special documentary. It is only at the end, that the filmmaker weaves in the deeper issues that I would have liked her to further pursue, that of the fact that the opportunity was like a dream, and now that it's over, what? Nothing has changed in their lives. This experience is one for the memory books, but does it propel them to anything more.
Unless the filmmaker wanted to show the simple answer of no, I don't think that she did this issue justice. This was director Sarah McCarthy's first documentary and her attendance at the screening showed how dedicated she was to the project and to her craft. The film's website shows that her team is taking this documentary to a level of giving, which is quite nice. During the Q&A, she gave us a couple updates on the children and mentioned that the children loved the film (and didn't seem to be thrown off by some of the negative or pessimistic, albeit realistic, components of their lives that were illuminated - a fear of hers) and she will be returning to the town again in the fall for more follow up.
The festival is a great time for movie lovers, as they get a concentrated opportunity to see different films, but it's important to remember the impact that a festival has on a filmmaker. As a young, first time director, Ms. McCarthy was obviously honoured and grateful to be at TIFF. She even presented TIFF's documentary programmer, Thom Powers with a mini-trophy thanking him for his support. It's easy to forget the impact that TIFF has on those people making the film that we go to see.
So anyway, it's a pretty good film. Nothing above and beyond, but gets the job done.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net