Chintu ka Birthday
This is 90 minutes of unadulterated goodness.
Watch this one, and feel the hope and peace steal into your heart.
We Indians know all about karma don't we? But sometimes we watch all kinds of bad happening to good souls. Watch this one and see how speedy redemption can be sometimes.
This is story of a Bihari family with Nepali passports stuck in Baghdad, under American occupancy. On the day that this story unfolds it is the birthday of the lad of the house - Chintu.
The family is trying their best to make it special for him amidst trying circumstances and the kid is super excited because it's his day and he has friends coming over and he is getting a cake. And then things start falling apart, he can't go to school because there has been a bombing and he is left holding the bag of sweets he was meant to distribute. His father sells water filters. Coz, Baghdad needs them. Suddenly their home is invaded by American soldiers, who suspect them of being accessories to a car bombing and the shit hits the fan. Spectacularly!
What is amazing is the sound design. The entire story plays out in the closed space of their home and we never get to see beyond it. And yet the world and the miserable politics spanning from the US of A to India with its accompanying bloodshed are sauntering in and out of this love soaked abode, simply through the dialogues being spoken and the sounds of the outside telling us that their is a war going on outside.
Devanshu Kumar and Satyanshu Singh have created a beauty. The lighting contributes to it too. It is so difficult to have child actors be centrestage and not come off as precocious. But this motley group is too good. Vedant Chhibber as Chintu is understated and powerful.
His elder sister is too good. The two American soldiers are well cast, and the way one of them brutally ransacked the family home is more gruesome, than if there had been blood and brain spilled all over.
What do I say of the remaining cast? Read their names and that's all I will need to say.... Seema Pahwa, Vinay Pathak and Tilottama Shome.
The film makers are definitely opinionated about their politics, they however just opine, and done through the mouths of babes, it somehow is more powerful than if done by a chest-thumping, self-obsessed adult.
Sample these:
Chintu in a voiceover says "The American uncle brought his soldiers here and then forgot to take them back."
His friend when asked if the soldier was good or bad, shrugs and says, "Well, he is American"
A commentary can be just as powerful when spoken softly.
This has dropped on Zee5.
Have a good Sunday.
Cheers.
#AllLivesMatter
#Miniasreviews
P.S: For the people of my generation, you will see our favourite round oven, the one in which we used to poke the cake with knitting needles and also our crushed biscuit cake. 😊😊😊
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