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Wednesday, 7th May 11:50 PM IST
Pluses:
Saqib Saleem show maturity as an actor, Partho Gupte is simply outstanding, emotional plot, great climax
Minuses:
over dramatic for most of the parts, too methodical performances, slow 1st half, routine songs
Critic Rating: 4/5
Business Rating: 3/5
Verdict:
Watch it for truly inspiring tale and rare realistic portrayal of social divide in society
Detailed Analysis:
Amole Gupte devised 'Taare Zameen Par' and then delivered critically acclaim yet under rated 'Stanley Ka Dabba'. He is back with another film where child is main protagonist. Film has somewhat simplistic but moving plot. Arjun Harishchandra Waghmare (Partho Gupte) is poor kid living in Dharavi with his mother, grandmother and sister. He lost his farmer father played by Makrand Deshpande, to a drought in small village of Maharashtra. Arjun takes up small time job with Bhatt Tea stall for 50 Rs a day where he serves tea in Bandra Kurla Complex. Late evening that place around tea stall converts into a coaching ground of skating. That skating catches the fancy of Arjun and his 4 friends (a Muslim kid who weaves entire day & night for paltry sum, a guy who sells 'gajra' at traffic signal, a poor mechanic helper and one kid who picks dirt ) help him to get one skate as Arjun can not afford 25000 Rs skate. The numero uno skating coach Lucky (Saqib Saleem) spots his talent and dreams that Arjun will be a champ one day. But his elder brother Annirudh wants him to shift to USA. But Lucky sticks to his dreams and how turns Arjun into a champ in middle of all social issues and internal trauma of Arjun forms the rest of the story.
Editing is crisp and cinematography is so real that one feels in middle of proceedings. Music is not so impressive and looks routine except title song. But the real hero is writing department. Its so meticulously written especially in 2nd half including climax that it lifts the film several notch. Social evils have been brought forward but in over dramatic manner which is the biggest flaw of the film. Story was poignant enough but over dramatization takes away the impact somewhat similarly what happened with 'Bhoothnath Returns'. A farmer committing suicide, not one but handful poor kids and a disease make this a bit artificial quite unlike director's earlier work 'Stanley Ka Dabba'. But yes its director Amole Gupte who again proves that making children film is not impossible, its not always about cartoons, animated superheroes and low IQ plots, it can be sensible, poignant and impactful with loads of inspiration bundled in form of pure entertainment. He will win many accolades for his effort but yes this is not his best as 'Stanley Ka Dabba' was more natural and deep. Film will release day after tomorrow and should get 600 plus screens. Film will get quite a stiff competition from last week's 'The Amazing Spiderman 2' and 8-9 new releases of this week. Film should open with good initials and will surely get good word of mouth and that will boost film's prospects at box office further.
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