India, June 20 -- At a pivotal moment in Schindler's List (1993), director Steven Spielberg introduces colour to his black-and-white film.

As Nazi troops storm the Krakow ghetto, killing residents, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) notices a little girl wearing a red coat. Only the coat is coloured, and it is not the bright red of Nazi symbols. Nor is it the colour of blood. It is a shade that speaks of life, and innocence.

The girl has no lines in Schindler's List. She is not a recurring character. In her one scene, she is often out of focus, amid people and structures that emphasise her smallness. Somehow, she evades the soldiers and finds a safe spot. We know that this is now a world in which she will have only herself to count on.

Ther...