Hindi Movie Review: Chal Chala Chal

Govinda Stars in Sentimental Idealist's story

This movie is the story of what would happen to an idealistic person in India - he would be oppressed, dominated and cheated by everyone he comes across. Govinda plays the role of the youngest son of Om Puri who is a retired school headmaster. Om Puri owns a beautiful bungalow in the heart of Mumbai which is sought after by several builders and real estate developers. Being idealistic young man Govinda is emotionally attached to the home where he believes the memories of his late mother are present. Govinda has two sisters who live with him with their families in the same family bungalow. Though well settled his brothers-in-law want to sell the house and get the cash. They don't attach any emotional significance to the home.

Om Puri is fighting a legal battle with the school he was employed at for his pension and retirement benefits. The opposition lawyer is none other than his own son-in-law who is bent to save the school the money. Finally the court orders the school to give Om Puri some property to the value of his retirement benefits and they end up with a broken down bus which Govinda decides to restore and deploy on the road to earn livelihood. His bus conductor flees with the collection of a whole month and not wanting to trouble the conductor's parents Govinda decides not to lodge a police complaint. This leads to further complications.

There is a namesake heroine in the movie who doesn't have much role. The part could well have been eliminated but I guess Indian movie makers are still obsessed with the idea that without a heroine it is impossible to make a movie work. The rest of the story focuses on the tussle between the driver, conductor and owner of the bus and how the union gets involved. At each juncture Govinda displays an amazing humanity and continues to pardon those who cheat him. Finally he decides enough is enough when members of the workers union decide to vandalize the bus. There is one final fight and a court drama before the end of the movie.

This movie reinforces the message that if one is an idealist, he/ she has no place in the corrupt dog-eat-dog Indian society.

Dasvidaniya - Movie Review

Living life to the fullest

What would someone do when he/ she is diagnosed with terminal cancer? Most of us would crib, complain, grieve, and become recluses either at home or at the hospital. In Dasvidaniya the hero is in the same situation but he handles it in a totally different way.

Meet Amar Koul (Vinay Pathak), the protagonist of the movie. A typical nice guy living in Mumbai, India. He has never smoked, gotten drunk, or been with a woman. He is a very organized person and makes a to-do list every morning, things like shopping for grocery, toiletries, battery for his mother's hearing aid, etc. He works hard as accounts manager at a pharmaceutical company in Mumbai and lives with his mother. One fine day he goes to a doctor's appointment where is informed of the disease that afflicts him.

Amar is completely devastated and does not know what to do. He comes to terms with the disease and realizes that he has less than few months to live. Here comes his other form - a vision of what he would like to be - and then he makes one list of things that he would like to do before he dies. That is what he sets out to do, starting with buying a brand new car, going abroad, meeting with the love of his life to whom he could never express it, etc.

Life takes him through several peaks and troughs and finally he achieves all the ten things in his list. In my opinion this should have been a super hit movie but I guess Indian audiences are not mature enough to watch a serious drama flick such as Dasvidaniya. The performances by Vinay Pathak, and Rajat Kapoor, are stellar. Neha Dhupia plays Neha Banot the childhood love of Amar.

I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone and everyone who like a serious emotional drama about how to lead life while suffering from Cancer. It is an inspirational movie. Watch it, it is free on youtube and you will not regret it.

Movie Review: Chor Mandli

Starring: Mukul Dev, Sweta Keswani, Razak Khan, Dharam Pal, Vishwajeet Pradhan
Director: Sanjay Khanna
Genre: Comedy

Last week while snow and ice were wrecking havoc on the roadways, causing accidents, I was cooped up at home reading my textbooks. To take a break I watched this totally nonsensical Bollywood comedy Chor Mandli. Surprisingly the movie had few songs and was over in less than two hrs. This is surprising because Hindi movies are usually 2-3 hrs in length and have the standard formula, five songs, one rape scene, 3-4 fight scenes and a climax. I am glad Bollywood directors are finally moving away from the used, reused and abused formula concept. The director has moved away from the standard formula and woven a story around five common and petty thieves.

Set in Mumbai, India, the movie features Honda the car thief, Nandu the mobile thief, Marco the gambler, a struggling actor, Buta Singh, Chindi someone who watches while others steal. Honda gets caught and goes behind the bars where he meets another entirely crazy character who gives him a tip about a safe that contains lots of cash.

Honda tries to enlist his friend's help to get bailed out and steal the cash, instead the twist of events make him stay in jail for 3 years. His friends how meanwhile have come to know of the details of the loot plan and execute the job. The ending is completely different and quite illogical and stupid in my opinion.

The movie is available free on Youtube, watch it if you have lots of time on hand.

Book Review: Sadak Chhaap

Story of a Mumbai street kid
Sadak Chhaap by Meher Pestonji; Penguin Books; Price: Rs.250; 190 pp.

According to an Amnesty International report (1999), 18 million children eke out a hazardous existence on the mean streets of India’s ill-planned, under-served cities where 40-60 percent of the population live in squalid slums. With railway platforms, bus stations and other public spaces serving as their homes, doing odd jobs, scavenging rubbish dumps and begging, they are easy prey to paedophiles, gangsters, unscrupulous businessmen and drug and substance dealers. With no education, skills or training these children have to fend for themselves in an environment in which even the beat policeman is usually a predator.

Sadak Chhaap (‘Mark of the Street’) is a work of fiction based on the lives of street children in Mumbai. Its protagonist is ten years old. Rahul a typical street kid living on a railway platform. A sprightly lad, he has run away from a village which he himself doesn’t remember. But unlike his peers who are resigned to life on the street Rahul is determined to rise up and move out.

The main characters of the book are an eclectic mix of people ranging from Karim Bhai (a fruit stall owner and father figure), Bablu (his best friend, also a street kid), Aparna (who works at Sharan — a shelter for street children), Chameli (a flower seller on whom Rahul has a secret crush) and baby Kajol. There are other characters in supportive roles including street children Victor and Shekar, vendors Hamid, Heera etc, who are not quite fleshed out, but are important to complete the plot of the narrative.

Written by Meher Pestonji, a freelance journalist and social worker, whose earlier works include Mixed Marriage and Other Parsi Stories, Pervez: A Novel, and Piano for Sale, a play, Sadak Chhaap is the outcome of her voluntary work with street children in Mumbai. The narrative begins on a railway platform, where Rahul, feasting on a stolen mango spots a small package on a neighbouring bench. In the hope of chancing upon some food, clothes or a blanket, he opens the package to discover a half-burnt baby with ants crawling all over her face. He runs to Sharan and approaches Aparna who heads the shelter, to rescue the child.

The child is taken to hospital for treatment and is saved in the nick of time. Rahul christens her Kajol after his favourite Bollywood movie star. Soon Kajol is moved to an orphanage in Vashi, a distant suburb of Mumbai and in appreciation of his good turn, Rahul is offered the job of a gardener in the orphanage. He seems to be moving up in life, but typically the management of the institution demands a stiff price in terms of total obedience and conformity. For the small misdemeanour of sneaking out to watch a movie and meeting his old friends on the street, he is found out and sacked from his job. Kajol is given away in adoption and Rahul is denied the privilege of meeting with her.

Without shelter and jobless again, Rahul shifts base to the streets near the Gateway of India which offer new challenges. To survive on these mean streets he begins running drugs and becomes a male prostitute at the age of twelve. On one such sexual assignment Rahul is badly abused by a firang (foreign) sexual pervert, Greg. This traumatic experience plunges him into further despair for which drugs are the only pain killers. But his friends at Sharan rescue him and enroll him for detox sessions.

Pestonji weaves a fast-paced and absorbing narrative which is a window looking out on the brutal streets of Mumbai, where millions of impoverished children are left to fend for themselves. Living in the shadows of the city’s plush 5-star hotels where gastronomic excess and effete luxury are a way of life, for these Fagin’s children hunger is a constant companion. Rahul steals a bicycle to save bus fare; lies to keep Kajol within reach and eventually succumbs to the lure of affectionate paedophiles. Pestonji’s vocab and descriptive power highlights the despair of these helpless children and her portrayal of street life has the stamp of authenticity. Moreover the direct, simple and sensitive plot into which her social message is woven, makes compelling reading.

Sadak Chhaap is a simply told tale whose subtext is a campaign against the neglect and abuse of India’s huge population of street children. But its major infirmity is that it is recounted as a breathless narrative of episodes and adventures in quick succession. There is a conspicuous dearth of analysis of the causative factors proliferation of street children. Surely Aparna who heads the NGO Sharan would have some macro level explanation? To accept the status quo as the natural order of things is suggestive of excessive pessimism if not a morality. Moreover Pestonji seems oblivious of the reality that some street children have — with a little help from NGOs and social workers — risen from the streets and gone on great things. A note of optimism could have retrieve the gloom which pervades the novel.

Also towards the end, Pestonji seems to lose the thread of the narrative and veers into a denunciation of communalism, making a passing reference to the Gujarat riots of 2002. This is a rather unnecessary inclusion and strikes a jarring chord which is out of sync with the major issues the novel confronts — homelessness, drug addiction, child marriage and sex tourism.