I am going to talk about an Indian film that is vastly underrated despite the presence of an actor who later became superstar and a narrative which was India's official entry to the Oscars.
The film is called Aakhiri Khat (The last letter) starting a debutante Rajesh Khanna, Indrani Mukherjee and a 15 month old child.
This 15 month old child was the centre of the narrative.
A young man meets a village girl, falls in love with her, and gets her impregnated. But he gets a scholarship as an artist and has to leave. The girl gives birth to the child and comes to city searching for her beloved but couldn't find him in his given address. She leaves her “last letter” on the door of the house and keeps waiting for him to come. Exasperated by hunger and thirst, she dies on the street leaving the child alone.
Now the rest of the film is about the toddler roaming on the streets while the man after receiving the letter, goes into the search of the child.
For giving a realistic touch to the film, the director Chetan Anand put the toddler on streets recording him with hand held camera. So a lot of things that the child does in the film are real shots (not all, there are rehearsed shots as well). The toddler was barely aware of what he was doing and it took a lot of efforts to edit out content relevant for the film. I don't know how ethical it is to place a child on street all by himself for a film (I hope there was some guidance).
Master Bunty has worked in more than 20 films in his career but nothing was as significant as his debut film. But that experience must have been a unforgettable if he remembers anything out of it..