Stanley Ka Dabba (2011)

First things first, Stanley Ka Dabba (SKD) is not another Taare Zameen Par. Indeed, the plot revolves around a child and it’s based on a serious issue but Stanley Ka Dabba is poles apart from TZP. It’s based on a phenomenal issue related to school going children that one ignores in daily life. An issue that many might think is insignificant but what’s interesting is how Amol Gupte picked it up and made a film on it, which literally makes you think!It is a film about children but it addresses the adults and aims to teach them a lesson.

SKD is an appealing tale about Stanley (Partho), a fourth grade student. He comes to school before everyone else does and completes his homework. He is exceptionally bright in class and is the center of attraction amongst his peers and class fellows. Stanley particularly likes his English teacher, Rosy (Divya Dutta) who is also very fond of Partho’s essays and originality.

However, not all teachers appreciate Partho’s creativity. For instance, the greedy Hindi teacher Mr. Varma played by Amole Gupte himself is not very fond of Partho. Mr. Varma, whom students call khadoos, is always mad at Partho for not bringing his dabba. One day he goes to the extent of telling him, ‘Kal se dabba nahin, to school nahin.’ This creates havoc in the poor student’s life. Whether Parthois able to find a solution to this problem or not is what forms the rest of the story.

To many the issue of lunchboxes might seem a very minor one but in reality that’s how children learn materialism and develop complexes. If teachers give more importance to the ones who bring fully loaded lunchboxes, the others can develop an inferiority complex, which might take a lifetime to overcome! Any serious issue dealing kids needs delicacy to be translated into a movie and that’s what Amol Gupte has especially taken care of. The delicacy and simplicity with which he has made this film reflects and is purely a work of genius.

The first half of the film sets the right mood and tells the tale of Stanley while showing his school life, which looks very convincing and hence makes it relatable. The film, however, is not completely in a serious nor depressing tone. There are lighter moments in it too for instance the part where Stanley and his friends trick their teacher so that they can enjoy their lunch peacefully.

While the first half of the film is quite eventful, the second half is slower and more touching! It shows the determination and spirit of the fourth grade student, Stanley and how he is eager to learn despite an unappreciative teacher.

When a film doesn’t have glamour, it doesn’t have a shell to hide under. In Stanley Ka Dabba’s case its simplicity becomes it’s beauty and the performances become even more prominent. One can’t appreciate the lead, Partho, enough for the natural performance he has delivered throughout the film. Not once does he lack confidence or seem like a newcomer. Kudos to the child and the director for preparing him so well.
Not only has Partho performed perfectly but the adult cast has portrayed the roles ideally too. Divya Dutta stands out as the ever helpful and inspirational teacher. Amol Gupte has played his role so well that he literally makes you hate the greedy teacher, which is precisely the idea.

The music of the film is soothing and totally apt for the plot. There’s nothing fancy that you might want to put on repeat but it works because it makes the entire package even better!

Every film has a hidden message and this one has to. It tells you to appreciate life despite the hardships, it tells you to realize how lucky you are, it tells you to know there are many out there who don’t have all the privileges you do, it tells you to keep your chin up in all kinds of circumstances and last but not the least it tells you to never leave hope!

The film has the potential to pull your heartstrings at quite a few scenes; however, you need to be in a mood to watch something purely issue based and serious. It’s far from entertainment providing films and if that’s what you’re looking for, just skip it – Hafsah Sarfraz

Rating – 3.5 out of 5

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2011, Genre – Social/Drama/Children, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Amol Gupte, Director – Amol Gupte, Music Director – Hitesh Sonik, Cast – Divya Dutta, Divya Jagdale, Raj Zutshi, Aditya Lakhia, Rahul Singh, Amol Gupte, Kadambari Desai, Shiv Subramanyam, Shashank Shende, Partho

Kaminey (2009)

Eleven characters. A volley of bullets whizz by. Corpses pile up. A dead body disappears. A drug deal goes awry. Blink and you might miss all of it. Kaminey is a film that requires a heavy dose of caffeine and your utmost attention. It also is the hit of the year.

Forget the Kambakkht Ishqs and Saif double-acts of the summer: Kaminey is undoubtedly the best Indian film to have been released this year; and one doubts any film can top that. After all, this is the only film I have seen where the audience at Karachi’s Nishat cinema sat absolutely riveted through all two and a half hours of the film and burst into spontaneous applause as the end credits ran. How many times – outside of a film festival/premiere setting – has that happened?

Kaminey is being quoted as the film that has turned Shahid Kapur from a star into an actor. One has to disagree – because Kapur already proved his talent as an actor in Jab We Met. But what Kaminey has done for Kapur is that it has proved that he may truly become one of the best Bollywood actors of the next generation, provided he still continues to strike a balance between films like Kaminey and the (seemingly mindless) Dil Bole Hadippa types.

Vishal Bhardwaj – the man behind Kaminey from the music to the dialogues to the direction – has proven himself to be one of India’s best filmmakers in recent years. From Maqbool to Omkara, Bhardwaj has made films that leave you unsettled and constantly looking out for the characters that lurk in the dead of the night.

Kaminey is all about those characters, each incredibly twisted and utterly kamina. This is a film that requires alert senses and caffeine aids, because if you miss one scene – even one glance – you may lose track of the film altogether. Bhardwaj takes the first half of Kaminey to weave an incredibly convoluted plot: that features a pair of twin brothers – the stammering Guddu and the lisping Charlie and draws every possible contrast between their lives. Charlie is yet another of the small time gangsters who proliferate in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai and is as thick as thieves with three Bengali brothers, of which one – Mikhail – he considers his true brother.

On the other hand, Guddu is a meek NGO worker who has his entire life plan charted out on his wardrobe door, but it’s torn to shreds when his girlfriend, Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) drops a bombshell on him.  The other characters – including the highly entertaining, ‘Jai Maharashtra’ yelling opportunist Bhope (Amol Gupte) – all are caught in the middle of a huge drug deal that sees three different groups caught in crossfire and amid corpses and gunfire, the brothers finally come to a crossroad: they’re confused for each other.
Kaminey is really about the dark side of every cast member, even Sweety, who at one point attempts to machine-gun her brother and his followers down. Set to the searing, burning soundtrack of ‘Dhan Te Nan’ and with shades of Guy Ritchie’s brand of filmmaking – Kaminey is a twisted, macabre film that will leave you edgy, unsettled yet its addictive, in a guilty pleasure way.

The cinematography and editing is beyond excellent: there are scenes that will leave you wondering not just how this was executed on a technical level, but what kind of twisted frame of mind the actors had to have to perform so brilliantly. Even the daytime and monsoon rain are made to seem as accompaniments to the dark nature of Kaminey, and the flashbacks to Charlie and Guddu’s childhood and scenes depicting Charlie’s future are peppered with a sense of gloomy foreboding. There are so many allegories in the film that it reminds one of the Shakespearian throwbacks that Bhardwaj made his name on: the rail tracks that signify their lives, the twins, the almost Hamlet-like paranoia and madness that the characters find themselves in.

So how Charlie and Guddu extricate themselves of the hell of their own making and their further foray into the depths of hell that they have been thrust into by the feuding groups is what occupies the second half of the film. The sardonic humour and matter-of-fact violence combined with the truly engaging characters – from the cocaine sniffing barons to the corrupt police officer to the ‘sar phira’ Mikhail and the opportunist Bhope – makes Kaminey a complete winner. The eleven characters in Kaminey weave plots of their own and as they criss-cross and interact with each other you’re left jumping from one situation to another, from one underhanded deal to another. Bhardwaj explores the urban setting of Kaminey - from the club that Mikhail and Charlie euphorically dance to ‘Dhan Te Nan’, to the beaches of Goa, to the crowded neighbourhood where Bhope wields his political fist, his pro-Maharashtra stance resembling that of the Shiv Sena, to the streets where Guddu sings his AIDS awareness song ‘Fatak’. The themes are all those that will strike a chord with a Pakistani audience – the question really is, when do we make a film about this side of our cities?

But those are matters for another day: it is time to herald Shahid Kapur. Kaminey is undoubtedly Shahid Kapur’s film, through and through. His double roles as Charlie and Guddu are so completely different that it’s hard to reconcile that the same actor is essaying them. Bhardwaj has always brought out the best in his actors (Irrfan Khan in Maqbool and Saif Ali Khan in Omkara are two great examples), but with Kaminey, Bhardwaj has taken Shahid Kapur’s career to another level while making us fall in love with his brand of filmmaking all over again. Worth every bit of the applause that the cinema hall in Karachi gave to him, and more. Kaminey is the film to watch this year – Saba Imtiaz (Rating – 4.5 OUT OF 5)

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2009, Genre – Thriller, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Ronnie Screwvala, Director –Vishal Bharadwaj, Music Director – Vishal Bharadwaj, Cast – Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra, Amol Gupte