This film is about a very intelligent and compassionate woman who takes an orphan girl into her home. Her personal values and the societal values are tested when the orphan girl is found to be HIV-positive.
"The Cover Page" approaches this difficult issue with love and compassion. The lead character, Gowri, puts her adopted daughters' welfare above her own. She refuses to bow down to societal prejudices and pressure, and insists on loving Bhavathi all the way through. Gowri appeals that even though we cannot give these children health, we can still give them happiness during their unfairly short lives. She brings out the best side of human nature, and reminds us that there is still a bright side to humanity.
After the film, the director Roopa Iyer was there for a Q&A session. She told the audience that she cared for 120 children with HIV infection; the sad story of Bhavathi was just one of them. The girl who played Bhavathi died one month ago, which made "The Cover Page" even more sad to watch. Throughout the film, I was constantly mindful of that the children were completely innocent, and yet they had to bear the consequences of their parents' behaviour. It is so sad that 25 million children's lives were already tragically cut short by AIDS, and unfortunately there will be more to come, unless the world does something to stop AIDS now.