Party toh banti hai
yaar……waqai!!
Hello ppl!!
Enjoying the summer?! Or should I say, the hot-shot summer
enjoying teasing you? Whichever way it is, I am sure there’s at least one thing
that provides some relief to many, whatever the season, Bollywood!!
Ek baat bolu? You will all agree, when I say that in
Bollywood Children’s movies are mostly made by a good director, of the
children, for the children and with the children. The successful ones are those
that are meant for the children, loved by the children and liked and
appreciated by the adults.
Have you imagined a movie, hardcore meant for adults but
treated in such a way so as to be Loved by the children? Plus passing the hard
hitting message through without compromising an ounce. Difficult to imagine
naa?! I agree. But not impossible !!
You guessed right, me talking about none other than
Bhootnath Returns!!
Waise toh since long the movies made specially and
specifically for kids, the so called Children’s movies occupy a separate
discrete genre, for instance, Chachi 420, Taare zameen par, Mr India, My Friend
Ganesha, etc and the very latest Bhootnath, which was the story of a sad and
deprived father Mr Kailashnath and his antics with a sweet boy Banku who comes
as a tenant with his parents, Juhi and Shahrukh, in the house where the ‘Bhoot’
of Mr Kailashnath resides and due to the emotional attachment to the house that
harbours memories of his late wife and childhood of his only son, now settled
abroad and completely unwilling to return to his country he doesn’t want the
house to be rented or sold. Banku finally helps Kailashnath to forgive his
erring son and attain moksha.
Now this was a movie with a commercial and melodramatic
touch to it under the banner of BR films, doing quite well too. It was a light
entertaining children’s movie with a few moral science lessons maybe, but all
in all, without much consequence.
So when I heard a movie launched by the name of Bhootnath
Returns, I thought naturally that it was just another sequel in the sea of the
series thats becoming a fad these days, more in fear of failure for lack of
enterprising new stories, fine film making and going an easier way through to
cash on the merits of the original movie for the sequel which obviously
projects the message loud and clear that it just might be less in quality
quotient than the original.
With this kind of mindset I sat there to view the movie with
almost no expectations other than to make my kids have a good time. I realized
soon enough that the producer, director, team, banner, all were completely different.
And that made me concentrate on the movie more critically.
Though I was disappointed as to why did they resort to name
the movie as if it was a sequel because for one, it wasn’t and secondly the
quality of movie was way above the previous one. All that this name did was to
make the audience compelled to compare it with the earlier one and hence
wrongly lower the bar before even seeing the flick.
As the movie ended I had only one thing in my mind, if I had
in my power I would grant the highest award for best film making to this movie.
I had my reasons.
Children have the least attention span. Nikhil Tiwari has a
way with kids and a sample of it he gave us in the movie Chillar Party. To keep this audience interested till
the end and get a strong message through without being preachy is next to
impossible. But Nikhil accomplished it beautifully with a flair in Chillar
Party.
This one was a step ahead and I may go on to call it simply
Perfect!!
There is this amazing boy Parth Bhalerao called Akhrot who’s
the star of the movie. He has just one Marathi movie to his credit. In this
one? My Gawd!! He is superlative!!
Amitabh Bachchan is Amitabh Bachchan we all know, but
someone this tiny as Parth in the Gigantic presence of Amitabh carrying away
the whole movie single handedly, is beyond comprehension.
There are long conversations between the two throughout the
movie which we so relish. The Big B no where near his high pedestal, in fact
very vulnerable at times, under the protection of The Akhrot.
In an office sequence, they both have the same dialogues,
actions and mannerisms which akhrot does oh so effortlessly.
Walking on the rail track how Akhrot asks that being a ghost
Bhootnath must not be needing to bathe either and when Big B sheepishly, rather
guiltily says No by a “Tch” sound and shake of head, he says, ‘mast hai tera
toh!!’ :)
Boman Irani, in the flow of a sentence calls him “Khajur”,
the way a small insignificant boy is generally referred to, and his assistant
corrects him, “Akhrot’ he says…my God !!
Such crisp humour adorns the movie, throughout.
Boman Irani is at his best, his introduction bringing on a
smile rather than a loathful expression in the audiences, though he plays the part
of the gunda politician to perfection.
One more important thing that shows so clearly, when the
people of opposition come to meet Bhootnath and ask him, how many muslims were
there in his constituency, how many hindus, likewise how many agde and how many
pichhde…..it all sounds so so ridiculous and out of place in fair and straight
politics.
Ohh!! Kya kya bolu mai!!
I was in tears when Sanjay Mishra hunts out his Advocate’s
black coat, dusts and dons it proudly looking at the mirror and comes out with
the confidence of determination
and sheer strength of purpose.
Music was mast, Party toh banti hai, an instant hit with
all.
Shahrukh, Ranbir, Anurag Kashyap, all seemed lucky to be a part of this
creative and daring bonanza.
Yes, the director had dared. Dared to do what he could do
best, to bring the much awaited change. More so in the ignitable election
season. An aware and intelligent person but not without a heart, Nikhil Tiwari
was an out and out winner with this one.
He says selecting and working with children is his forte
because he can strike a chord with them, yet it breaks his heart if he has to
reject any kid. He feels that suffering rejection at an early age weighs
heavily on children and he tries real hard to avoid it because many times
children who look promising, freeze in front of the camera.
For the role of Akhrot too, he had zeroed in on two kids,
the one other than Parth, he has promised to take in his next movie lest he
feels hurt.
Way to go Nikhil, I wish him all the best.
This movie atleast should be made tax free and universal
screening done. It may be a drop in the ocean as far as change in society is
concerned but no doubt it’s a big drop, a very big one.
So people…do yourself a favour and go watch this movie if
you haven’t till now. Believe me, you deserve to.
Aur haan…..isi baat me…..
Party toh, Party toh, Party toh banti hai !!!
Cheers !! till
we meet again !! :)
