Party toh banti hai yaar….waqai!! :)

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 !! :)