MOVIE REVIEW: THE BLUE UMBRELLA (Chhatri Chor)

Two reviews in 2 days!! I certainly some free time to kill on my hands!!

The Blue Umbrella is a Vishal Bharadwaj adaptation of a novella of the same name, written by the great Ruskin Bond. Vishal Bharadwaj started off with a bang as a music director in Maachis, and as a director with Makdee, which was also an award-winning children's film. He is, again, part of the brigade of new directors with a mint-fresh approach to the entire process of film-making. Personally, I feel he is the new-age Gulzar. Extremely versatile, he has shown that he can handle light-hearted films like The Blue Umbrella and Makdee with as much deftness, as he handles serious, dark and brooding films like Maqbool and Omkara. This is Vishal's third adaptation of a novella/story after Maqbool (based on Shakespeare's Macbeth) and Omkara(again, Shakespeare's Othello).

The storyline of the film is simple yet deep, metaphorically. Biniya is the livewire of a small hamlet, somewhere in Himachal Pradesh, and the people of the village adore her. Nandkishore Khatri is a local tea-stall owner, who is known to be a miser and a very self-centered person. One day, Biniya discovers a beautiful Japanese umbrella and exchanges her necklet for it. As she flaunts her umbrella around the village, it becomes the envy of many, including Nandkishore Khatri and he desires it intensely. Then one fine day, the umbrella is stolen, and Biniya's suspects Nandkishore of stealing it, though she has no proof. How Biniya finds her missing umbrella and what happens to Nandkishore Khatri after that forms the rest of the story.

Thank you ,Vishal Bharadwaj, for bringing innocence back into cinema. In an age, where skin-show, titillation, foul-language and gore seems to be the in-thing in cinema, without which films are doomed, he brings back the freshness of childhood. The movie makes us get in touch with the child in each one of us, makes us rid the vulgarity of popular cinema, for those 1 and a half hours of its running time.

Thank you, for retaining the mood that a Ruskin Bond novel has. Everybody, at some point in their lives, must've read a short-story or its excerpt by Ruskin Bond, either as leisure pleasure or as part of their curriculum (like I had in DPS, Vasant Kunj, my school), and would be familiar with the mood he sets in every story of his. The style of narration is subtle, simple and easy to comprehend. The language is simple, and the aura it creates, makes even the hot afternoon feel cool. Vishal Bharadwaj has not just copied the story and made it into a screenplay, he has got into the soul of the author.

Thank you, for lending some respect to children's intellect.Mind you, this is a children's film and not a childish film. Many people, in their attempt to please the children, try and make immature and childish movies, with zilch script, and oversmart characters who think on their feet, already have a way out of trouble, and the most pathetic part, assign 'Formula No.s' to each of their ingenious ideas. Which kid does that??? The director shows his maturity by showing kids very normal in their behavior and not little geniuses.

And, lastly, thank you for making us realize once again, what an underrated actor Pankaj Kapur is. To say he is fantastic is making a huge understatement. HE IS SUPERLATIVE!!! His character, though having shades of grey, is very human. His accent, dialogue-delivery, mannerisms, expressions, chemistry with the character of Biniya and the lust for the umbrella, are so perfect that they look endearing even though the actions lack moral justification. If Abbaji of Maqbool was a performance at the highest level, Nandkishore Khatri comes a very very close second.

Special thanks, to Samir Chanda (Art Director) and Sachin K. Krishn (Cinematographer), for capturing the beauty of Himachal. It looked more gorgeous than the Swiss Alps. The setting itself is a character, the hamlet has a soul of its own.

Vishal Bharadwaj, the director excels because Vishal Bharadwaj, the writer, the screenwriter, the dialogue writer and the music director lend adequate support. The dialogues deserve special mention: they are acidic and well-worded. Note the scene right near the end when Nandkishore Khatri goes for a shave; the impact of the dialogues and the expressions of Pankaj Kapur on hearing those, totally break your heart. Very tight story and screenplay, the film not for a moment drags.The metaphorical use of the summer, bright and sunny, and winter, cold and barren, shows the stamp of a creative genius. Music, though not popular, blends in well with the mood. He also extracts a solid performance out of Shreya Sharma (Biniya); standing up to an acting powerhouse like Pankaj Kapur requires supreme confidence which she displays quite well.

All in all: Please don't think this is boring, preachy art-house cinema. Also, please don't think this is only meant for children. This film is 90 mins of pure magic; give yourself a break from the same old pelvic-swinging item song and micro-mini stuff, that would in any case go on and on forever.

My Rating : **** and half (One of my all-time favourites)