The death of an eight-year-old girl in Thrissur after a mobile phone exploded in her hand has sent shock waves across Kerala. It has also fuelled discussions on risk posed by low-quality phones.
The incident, though rare, is not completely unheard of in India. Last year, an eight-month-old girl lost her life while a mobile phone kept near her burst when she was sleeping in Uttar Pradesh. These incidents are eerily similar to a scene in Dulquer Salmaan’s Tamil film ‘Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal’ that was released in the year 2020.
In the movie, Dulquer plays a con artist, named Siddharth, who along with his friend Kaliswaran Moorthy, played by actor Rakshan, make a living stealing original parts of electronic products and reselling the gadgets after replacing them with old and duplicate parts.
Though they manage to hoodwink the public, they soon come under the scanner after a laptop used by the daughter of District Commissioner of Police (DCP) Pratap Chakravarthy bursts into flames. The child has a narrow escape but this prompts an investigation and the story progresses from there.
Though the movie does not delve deeply into the subject of deadly gadget explosions, it does put across the idea that people need to be weary of what one purchases.
Meanwhile, preliminary reports on the tragedy of the Trichur girl suggest that the mobile phone burst in her hand because the battery got over-heated.
