Cast :: Atul Kulkarni, Darsheel Safary, Rituparna Sengupta & Ziyah VastaniMusic :: M.G. Sreekumar
Director :: Priyadarshan
Producer :: Percept Picture Company & Sanjay Ghodawat Group
Rating:
Bumm Bumm Bole Hindi Movie Review:
Story And Movie Analysis:
When the only breadwinner of a penniless family is employed on monthly salary of Rs 3000, the first thing he buys is two pair of shoes for his kids. The brand of the footwear is Adidas and the amount he might have spent is perhaps as much (if not more) as his income. To accommodate a brand placement, director Priyadarshan muddles up with principal priorities of life thereby mixing up neorealism with commercialism. That’s where Bumm Bumm Bole falters.
An official remake of Majid Majidi’s Oscar nominated cult classic Irani film Bacheha-Ye-Aseman (Children of Heaven), comparisons are inevitable with the original. The film does pale with respect to the emotional connect that the viewer has with the central child characters but other than that Priyadarshan wins in bringing out an appropriate essence of innocence from the kids.
Priyan takes the setting to Darjeeling where Khogiram (Atul Kulkarni) and his wife (Rituparna Sengupta) have lost their jobs at the tea-estate and are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Their son Pinaki (Darsheel Safary) misplaces his sister Rimjhim’s (Ziyah Vastani) sandals and to save being dispelled from their school, the siblings share Pinaki’s shoes. Keeping it a secret from their parents, Rimjhim steps into shoes that are too big for her small feet, while Pinaki is delayed in his daily school routine while waiting to swap shoes with his sister. Until when an inter-school marathon is announced in which one of the prizes is a brand new pair of shoes!
The primary appeal of the film lies in the simplicity of its plot and the ability to bind you with minimalism. But amidst this when you have a fancy song merely enforced for barefaced in-film branding, it just doesn’t gel with the candour conduct of such cinema. The innocent chemistry of the siblings is brought out persuasively and the baby girl (Ziyah Vastani) wholly wins your heart with her cute charm.
Artist Performance:
Performances from both the child artists are marvelous. Darsheel Safary is delightful without any Taare Zameen Par hangover. He firmly carries the film on his small shoulders and doesn’t disappoint one bit. Neither does he overact nor does he appear immature – he’s perfectly poised. Ziyah Vastani is one of the most endearing child actors ever, flashing a cute smile every once in a while. She looks absolutely adorable as she runs in baby steps to exchange footwear with her brother. She is clearly the scene-stealer. Atul Kulkarni does a good job. His constantly fluctuating belief and disbelief towards God through the film is amusing. Rituparna Sengupta doesn’t get much scope.
Technical And Other Departments:
The screenplay is uncomplicated yet eventful with Pinaki’s endearing attempts to keep the secret of lost shoes from his parents and subsequently win a new pair for his sister. However it strays in between with Khogiram and Pinaki’s gardening exercise where they encounter a sugar-sweet dadi maa (Sulbha Deshpande) who rewards them generously for watering her roses. Also a Maoist terrorist track is incorporated in the narrative which has no connection with the central theme of the film. A child’s unknowing involvement in a terrorist activity was more compellingly captured in films like Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan and Piyush Jha’s Sikandar . Here it doesn’t contribute to the story beyond a single scene. Amidst these guns and roses, the principal plot of Pinaki’s struggle gets momentarily derailed.
A blatant blooper is the fact that teachers in Pinaki’s convent school converse and teach in chaste Hindi. The marathon in the climax is too loosely directed lacking the essential gripping moments.
Cinematographer Selvi captures the lush greenery of Darjeeling to a menthol-cool effect on his lens and imparts an ethereal ambience to the film. M G Sreekumar’s background score has a saccharine-coated childish charm to it. Manisha Korde’s dialogues are apt but the language could have been toned down considering the target audience predominantly comprises of children.
Final View:
Bumm Bumm Bole is nowhere close to the class of neorealistic masterpieces like Kanchivaram that Priyadarshan directs once in a decade. However its still notches above potboilers like Garam Masala, Bhagam Bhag, Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Billu , the kind of stuff that Priyadarshan serves us through the decade.
Bumm Bumm Bole is watchable but simply for its ‘shoe-string’ of an idea.
