Bumm Bumm Bole

Rating**

A little boy loses a pair of shoes,and goes looking for them. That one-line story became a magical tale in the hands of Iranian director Majid Majidi. Priyadarshan adapts ‘Children Of Heaven’ ( full marks for giving credit to the original right on top),and comes up with a mixed bag : despite an interesting story,competent acting by the young leads,superb cinematography,which last is the hallmark of all Priyadarshan’s films,’Bumm Bumm Bole’ sparks only in patches,let down by a script which allows for too many loose moments,and a strictly unnecessary item number.

The setting is picturesque tea-gardens Assam. Young Pinaki aka Pinu ( Safary) and little sister Rimzim ( Vastani) stay cheerful despite a constantly-muttering worrywart of a father ( Kulkarni,good) who’s out of a job,and a mother ( Sengupta,artificial) who does her best to keep everyone’s spirits up. The loss of Rimzim’s shoes is a calamity. They can’t afford new ones,so the children take turns going to school with one pair,Rimzim trotting up the hilly path,Pinu hurrying to put them on,and racing,late,to his school.

Till the film stays with the children,it stays nice. Both Safary,who made a wonderful debut in ‘Taare Zameen Par’,and Vastani are allowed,mostly,to be their natural selves. Their interactions,when they are squabbling,which is what siblings do a lot of their waking hours,feel real. The only adult who matches up to them is Kulkarni,who gets so into the skin of his character that so you can see Khogiram,the desperate guy who’s unable to keep a job,and feed his family.

Priyan retains a lot of the original (entire scenes are faithfully lifted). But then he gets up to his old tricks of not knowing how to let a good thing be,and inflates the story with terrorists and insurgents and cops and shoot-outs,as well as a leering tea plantation manager who tries molesting the wife : this,in a children’s film? There’s also sloppiness in attention to detail : the nuns who run Pinu’s school sport thin sticks ( the better to beat the kids with?) and French manicures: is this a feature of new-age convent schools,or just being Bollywood?

Plus,a good film does not,repeat after me,does not need item numbers.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com