Detention
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Directed by Luciana Caplan | Reviewed by Diyashi Sharma
Once in everyone’s life, people experience detention in school, which is usually followed by different incidents, which are sometimes nerve wracking and other times funny. Detention does bring out the best as well as the worst out of each student. Much the same is shown in this film made by Luciana Caplan. The film revolves around a class whose students get detention.
We can see students talking or arguing among themselves, which is a very common sight in school, but as the scene focuses on the children, we find the girls talking about detention and how it is a problem to them, and how their parents scold them because of it. During the first few scenes, the relationship of the students with their parents and the various influences it has on them; becomes clear.
Some students are suppressed while some are extremely pampered. However, the one thing in common among all of them is their collective fear of detention. From their conversations it can be understood that almost every girl is a victim of various familial issues back at home, which has made them behave like this- and the students share their problems with each other, finding true empathy in the process.
The film is beautifully made, perfectly capturing the various ways in which the students are influenced from their elders, and how their parents’ misgivings are transferred onto the child.
The students can be seen copying their mothers and having a similar attitude to their peers which they have seen back at home- some of them even terrorized by their parents.
‘Detention’ is a perfect example of how children grow up looking up to their parents and elders of the house, and how it is the elder’s responsibility to maintain a proper behaviour around the young ones. The film shows how certain things which the elders do can highly affect the young minds of children. The slow disappearance of innocence in children is a direct result of their negligence and the advent of advanced technology in everyday life adds to the stunted growth of children’s thinking prowess - turning them materialistic in life from a very early age. The rude, obnoxious and selfish behaviour in children owe their origin to a lack of love, care, attention and time.
This film beautifully portrays every character with equal importance and almost each student has their own catchphrase- making the film very lively and fun.
It is a short and simple film, with quite a deep meaning lurking underneath, and every parent should watch this film to realize where they can go wrong or are probably going wrong right now.
Diyashi Sharma is a post graduate in Mass Communication and Journalism from Jadavpur University. She is presently working as a film festival curator and business development executive at HLC studios. She also has worked as a script writer and Voice-Over artist in Radio One. A dreamer and film enthusiast; she loves writing and talking about films and ads.
