William Faulkner said “I believe
that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because
he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul,
a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the
writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help a
man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honour and
hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which has been the glory
of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be
one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.” Nagesh Kuknoor
does exactly that with his latest outing. Even as everyone is caught up in the
chaos of another film, he quietly squeezes into the multiplex this awesome ode
to the human spirit.
Built substantially around two children the story line is an eye opener to our
size scale and star driven industry that a good film is about telling a story
from your heart. After the hard hitting Lakshmi he takes you on a wonderful
journey ( a la Mod) through the desert sands of Rajisthan as also the unsullied
hope of two orphan siblings fighting challenges, poverty, , deserted roads and
desert sands driven by the kinetic energy of Hope.
From the huts of middle of nowhere in Rajasthan we have these two kids debate
over the Khans on their long walk to school. The kids Pari ( Hetal Gada) and
her visually impaired brother Chotu ( Krrish Chabaria) live with their
indulgent uncle Dungaram ( Vipin Sharma) and his wife ( Gulfam Khan) . For Pri
it is SRK while for Chotu it is Salman. Dabang is the last film he saw before a
brief illness robbed him of his sight. News arrives that SRK is coming to nearby
Jaisalmar for a film shoot . Drawn by a poster on eye donation featuring SRK
the siblings believe that he is the answer to the problem. Pari promises her
kid brother vision by his ninth birthday on the ensuing October 2. They believe
that a tread to Jaisalmar is the cost of the ophthalmic surgery for the young
one . They set out .
Their experiences on the route makes for the script. The brave hearts run into
a motley group of people at different stages of their journey and the chase of
their mirage. First a truck driver ( Rishi Deshpande) than a tractor owner (
Vijay Maurya) followed by Mata Shira Devi (Vibha Chibber) an American drifter,
a gun wielding bhanjaran ( flor Saina) a sooth sayer ( Bharati Achrekar) a
quixotic mechanic ( Suresh Menon) and an enthusiastic motorcyclist ( Rajeev
Lakshman) all come to play a role – some negative, mostly positive in helping
the kids move on. Like in the Balraj Sahani starer Naunihal where the orphan
reaches out to Chacha Nehru in Delhi sadly on May 27, this twosome reach
Jaisalmar on the day Shahrukh has left to another location.
IN less than two hours Nagesh not only takes you on a heart-warming journey
through Rajasthan ( not the glamorous one of JP Dutta) but show cases what
stuff dreams and determination are made of. Kuknoor chooses a perfect cast. No
one tries. Every one is. There are no stars, no images, just ordinary cliché
defying players o the board.
The film however belongs to Nagesh. Not since Shkear Kapur ( Masoom and Mr.
India) do we have a film maker completely in peace with child actors. Viewers
will do themselves a favour by investing a couple of hours in the theatre . It
would be a combined salute to the human spirit, and the wonderful talent of the
cast and crew. Watch it to satisfy and certify your taste.
+ The infectious hope
– Hardly anything
Rating : 4 stars.
L.Ravichander.