There are no pretensions here of making this a profound message movie to please all ages. It is very clearly meant for kids below ten and doesn't lose focus. In fact, they bank heavily upon the supposedly limited movie watching experience of these children. This is evident through the very expected turn of events - from the micro sub-sub-plots to the ultimate climax. It’s the sweet understated instances that keep the wire live though.
Fantasy tales fascinate me immensely. We leave the whole world open for the storyteller to explore. He can take us anywhere he wishes with no obligation to stick to reality. It is entirely up to him to use the leverage that we so liberally give him. Yet Jay (story writer) has very admirably tried his best to remain rooted to the ground. The side effect though is that the basic plot is pretty much unimaginative and thus has no surprises.
The restraint shows in all other departments too. The camera work very appropriately doesn't take you dizzying through MTV land. Which also means the editor is not behaving as if he has these new toys called 'scissors' and 'sticky tape'. Sorry guys, forgive me, I have still not overcome the shock called Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. Visually, Chain Kuli Ki Main Kuli equals a soothing boat ride on a calm lake while Jhoom Barabar Jhoom equals a rocky car ride on the potholed monsoon roads of Pune (India). Okay - digression ends here.
Rahul Bose is his usual calm and composed self too. The kids behave like kids except for the one or two times that they get all philosophical and reflective on the adults. Patently unnatural. And the other dialogues are too natural and thus basically boring. The music is actually infuriating. Especially "Sunday Sunday" which is a blatant copy of "Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha" of Baton Baton Mein.
However, I did quite enjoy the spoof cricket world created. They had it all - the mandatory Sardar (Sikh), the left-handed captain star-batsman, the Muslim pace bowler, a coach that experiments with the batting line-up, and last but not the least - a chauvinistic dig at the female commentator who "obviously" knows nothing about the game.
So, plan of action for the weekend - take the kids to the theater while you stay out looking for some other form of entertainment to alternate between loo and fag breaks. And at the end of it all, together you can say, "What fun!?"
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