The Silent Heroes, a film that casts 13 differently-abled youngsters from around Dehradun is to be screened at the Dehradun International Film Festival to be held here from September 25 to 27. Also supported by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the State’s Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC) this film touches various pertinent issues including disability, social attitude towards disabled, social inclusion, importance of search and rescue and first aid and disaster awareness.
The movie filmed in Uttarakhand shows an ex-army officer Kapil Malhotra who trains the local youngsters in mountaineering, search and rescue. Gauri Singh who teaches in a for the hearing impaired approaches him to facilitate training of the children in her school for a mountaineering expedition-children who are considered handicapped by the society due to their hearing and speech impairment. Accepting the proposal, Kapil selects 13 students from the school and takes them to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi for advanced mountaineering training. However, the youngsters experience a challenging time at the institute with an accomplished instructor Hima Singh doubting the decision of the institute principal to enroll them in the mountaineering course. Subsequently, Kapil gets injured in a freak incident and the institute ends up sending Hima with the youngsters for their final expedition in the Himalaya- completing which is a pre-condition for their becoming certified mountaineers. However, the Himalaya soon starts to take its tool with Hima getting injured and ending up unconscious and immobile.
The 13 hearing impaired youngsters thus get stranded in the wilderness of the high Himalayas with their instructor unconscious and fighting for life. They have no means of communication with the base camp as their dream of becoming certified mountaineers lies in jeopardy. With the life of their instructor at stake, the youngsters have to abandon the expedition and rescue her which means the end of their dream.
The Silent Heroes is all about the choices these hearing impaired youngsters make silently but boldly. The choices they make have much in store for the hearing impaired community, State the film
makers. The movie in Hindi with English subtitles is directed by Mahesh Bhatt and produced by Kamal Birani with the DMMC executive director Dr Piyoosh Rautela as its executive producer.