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Whatever happened to the beautiful Soviet books that a generation of readers grew up on? In a Marathi documentary in the making, Dhukyat Haravlele Laal Taare (Red Stars Lost in the Mist), Devadatta Rajadhyaksha, Prasad Deshpande and Nikhil Rane try to find out.

As the film-makers themselves put it:

"As we grow, we love to pack our childhood in cardboard boxes and tuck them away safely. On a loft, under a bed, or in a store room back home.

As we grow, these boxes become distant memories. Buried beneath the dusts of time. Lost in the haze of maturity.

We move on, but the boxes remain where they are. Boxes full of fun and frolic. The first toy train. That worn out cricket bat. Those long lost board games. And most importantly, those colourful storybooks.

Crisp pages filled with tales of mystical fairies, charming princesses and enchanted kings. Tales about the crafty fox and the clever rabbit. Panchatantra, Aesop’s Fables, Tinkle, Chandamama. And that special book that opened up a whole new world to you. The one you got from a Soviet Russian book exhibition.

These Russian books brought us a new style of writing and storytelling. They introduced us to fantastic stars from folk tales, to children like us from our times. Page by page, story by story, book by book, they broadened our perspective.

And what’s most surprising is the fact that these books were presented to us in our mother tongue. With their brilliant narration and illustrations, with their superior paper and printing quality, with their message of optimism, these books were among our proudest possessions.

But then, where did these books disappear? Where is this treasure hidden today? Can our children, nieces and nephews experience the joys we experienced when we read these books?

Now is the time to clear the thick mists of time and open these books, turn the pages and travel back in time with Vasilisa the Beautiful, Chuk and Gek, and Adventures of Dennis."