When I was a kid, i used to look forward to the annual international children’s film festival. Today, children are the most ignored. Both by their parents and by the filmmakers. In this scenario, when Makdee, Hanuman (whose sequel Hanuman Returns is about to be released) and My Friend Ganesha become box office successes, it makes me happy because this could nudge other filmmakers to make many more children’s films. While Aamir Khan’s new film, Taare Zameen Par, isn’t really a children’s film, it’s about children. Hope this sparks interest in making the world of children a much better place to live in.
Among the recent films, one film that kind of dared to make a commercial film with a child as a protagonist was Nanhe Jaisalmer. Here is my review of it. Njoy!
Yeh ‘chemical locha’ hai bhai mere!
Watts of inspiration. Sensitive storyline. Yards of screen presence by the Nanhe Jaisalmer. That about sums up the film that tugs at your heart strings and makes you cry out of joy. Yes, the film has got a soul and you can feel it. Both the child and the adult can relate to this film and gather enough strength to face any obstacle. That’s the selling point of Nanhe Jaisalmer. It engages you in a child-like manner and entertains the child within. If the camera were to face you, the audience, instead of the film on screen, the possibilities are of an audience smiling gleefully at Nanhe’s antics, his trials, his tribulations, his idiosyncracies, his ‘adult’ and child friends, his pre-occupations and his family connections.
Which brings me to the story.
Nanhe (enacted remarkably well by child wonder Dwij Yadav) is a 10-year-old tourist guide who has been keeping the home fires burning from the age of 6. Since one of his uneducated ‘adult’ friends educate him that people learn to earn, he decided to give schooling a miss because he was able to earn without it. Not just that, he takes pride in the fact and goes about his life with much warmth and love, chewing gutkha and indulging in just one passion: living and dreaming about his friendship with Bollywood actor Bobby Deol. How did this develop, you ask? Well, when Nanhe was just four years, he had done a bit part in Deol’s film where the actor called him his ‘dost’. Since then, this infatuation turned to a crush and then ‘love’ for a long lost friend.
Deol becomes so much of an obsession for Nanhe that it prompts none other than Deol to buckle under the pressure of his innumerable letters – a testimony of which are the vertical strokes marked all over Nanhe’s door that indicate the number of letters he has sent to his star. Before you wonder how Nanhe can write, well, he actually dictates his letters to his loving elder sister who dutifully writes it down and checks back with him every now and then to see if certain phrases need to be changed for political correctness. It is scenes like these that grab your attention and there are many such scenes that showcase the throbbing soul in the film.
There is the scene when Nanhe meets Deol for the first time in the desert sands. Just like Shah Rukh Khan in the climactic scene of Chak De loses his balance and somehow manages to rest on the boundary line advertisement boards when the hockey team he coached wins the World Cup, our Nanhe here actually falls down and sits on his side only to stare at his idol. You feel the same relief that he feels in this frame and you feel happy that his years of dedication has finally borne fruit. But no, if you think that about sums up the story, you are wrong. The story only begins from here. So what’s the rest of the story? Well, just watch the film. Can’t give away the plot, can I?
This is a film that deserves to be shown in all schools and colleges, old age homes and orphanages, and at all the theatres, talkies and tents, and in every nook and cranny of the country. And yes, all the state government’s should make this film tax-free to encourage a lot more people to watch it. It’s about an Indian boy and his dreams, it’s about how his dreams come true and it’s about how there is nothing bigger than a person’s imagination. If you still can’t imagine what the film is all about, my suggestion: just watch it, and preferably with your entire family. It’s not just a children’s film.
What’s more, some bit of it reminds you of Lage Raho Munnabhai and Sanjay Dutt’s ‘chemical locha’. Was the scriptwriter inspired by this? No idea. But there sure seems to be some resemblance. Any which way, it’s a great effort by writer-director Samir Karnik who was assistant director to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and debuted as director with the eminently forgettable Kyon! Ho Gaya Na Pyar in 2002 starring Vivek Oberoi and Aishwarya Rai. Samir could well be labeled the next film factory because there are going to be two more releases within the next six months – his next film Roshan also starring Bobby Deol and Dwij Yadav is slated for later this year while his third film Mera Bharat Mahaan is scheduled for Jan 2008. If Nanhe Jaisalmer is about ‘will’; his next film Roshan is said to be about ‘hope’ while MBM is about ‘pride’.
There are things this film lacks which the hit film Heyy Baby had in abundance. Here are a few suggestions that could have made Nanhe Jaisalmer reign at the Box Office:
- The publicity of the film was ‘thanda’, including the film poster which just shows a small boy and ofcourse our Deol da puttar. Over here, Heyy Baby scores. Though the film is all about a few months old baby, there is no sign of the baby in the poster. You are conned into believing that the baby in question is Vidya Balan who figures in the poster. That’s a wonderful marketing gimmick that worked. In Nanhe Jaisalmer, maybe they could have got Bobby Deol in two avatars: one is being himself and one where he is a dwarf but his face resembles the actual ‘nanhe’ in the film. What’s more, these two faces could stare at each other while nanhe’s mother and sister look at them from down below. This could have created a lot more curiosity than what is shown in the existing poster.
- The script is very one-dimensional. It just runs on an even track. There aren’t any twists and turns like you’ve seen in Heyy Baby. Agreed, the story’s premise is inspirational, but the length of 90 minutes demands a lot more surprises to ensure the story reaches a crescendo. This doesn’t happen with Nanhe. So much so that the fantastic climax is diluted because the proceedings that lead up to it don’t just match up.
- Songs are forgettable and so is the music. There is no lilting music, the kind you heard in Iqbal… this film needed a certain melody that comes up whenever there is something inspirational on screen. It’s a big letdown.
- Bobby Deol as a 10-year-old’s inspiration is not believable. If it was Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan or Hrithik Roshan, I would have believed it more. But I guess, these top stars would have said ‘no’ to this film which is why the producer had to go to whoever was available.
- The scriptwriter could have given more life into the characters surrounding Nanhe like his ‘adult’ friends and his mother and sister. This way, he could have had some comic yet memorable songs and scenes that could have lifted the film from its one-track proceedings and infused more character and variety in the film.
