Anyone who knows me knows I'm not big on being beaten in the head by movies about social issues.  However, once in a great while, one comes along that handles it in a way that tells a genuinely important story without being preachy, which is what we get with Kavi.

Kavi is a little boy in India, forced into what is essentially slave labor at a brick making business with his mother and father because his father owes the owner 10,000 rupees.  Kavi and his parents live in squalor and work all day long for basically nothing.  If they work too slow or if the owner or his thug enforcers aren't happy with the work they're doing, they're severely beaten.

NOTE: The following paragraph contains plot spoilers, so if you don't want to read any spoilers, skip to paragraph after it to go straight to the review part instead.

Kavi has dreams of bigger things though.  He wants to go to school and to play cricket with the regular children.  Kavi's rescue comes only after a chance encounter in the nearby woods with a couple of government officials who are collecting evidence about the brick making facility in an effort to prove they're using slave labor.  When Kavi returns with a soda bottle he got after his encounter with the men, he's beaten and chained in a room.  Soon after, he looks out the window and sees that all the slaves are being loaded into a truck and hauled off just before the government officials show up with the police.  The officials look around and can't find anyone, but Kavi, determined to get away, tears his own hand up escaping from the shackle that binds him and goes out to the men to tell them his story, and is at last rescued.  Unfortunately, even though they'll try, there may be no way for them to ever locate his parents.

This is a short film coming in at only nineteen minutes, but it's absolutely brilliant from start to finish.  Its a rare thing for me to come across a film this flawless, but every single aspect of this film, from the writing to the visuals to the acting and everything in between are all just spectacular.  It gets its message across with an incredible story and doesn't come across as being the least bit preachy.  Probably the most impressive thing about this film is that even though it's only nineteen minutes long, when you finish watching it you feel like you just watched a feature.  I'm not even really sure how to describe it.  It almost feels like a feature's worth of content was compressed down into a short while having no adverse affect on the pacing of the film at all.  I'm not sure if I'm describing it right, but for once I'm actually at a loss for words.

Writer / director Gregg Helvey has done an amazing job with this film, telling a deep and compelling story while at the same time bringing to the attention of the viewer the fact that modern day slavery still exists, and is a bigger problem than most people realize.

This film has won numerous awards at various film festivals, and it's easy to see why.  I can't stress enough how great this film is, and if you get a chance to see it, do it.  You won't be sorry.  This is one of those rare films that will just make you sit back and say, "Wow..." when it's over.  It's that good.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, see the trailer or find out about the various screenings, you can check out the film's website at http://kavithemovie.com.