If you haven't watched Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's brilliant opus Children of Heaven, then you won't realise the gravity of how wrong the remake has turned out
Bumm Bumm Bole
U; Drama
Dir: Priyadarshan
Cast: Darsheel Safary, Ziyah Vastani, Atul Kulkarni, Rituparna Sengupta
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What's it about: If you haven't watched Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's brilliant opus Children of Heaven, then you won't realise the gravity of how wrong the remake has turned out. Priyadarshan's version of the 1997 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film is set somewhere in the North East. Pinu (Darsheel) and Rimjhim (Ziyah) are the children of a poor tea garden worker (Atul) and his wife (Rituparna). After losing his sister's shoes in the market, Pinu's whole world revolves around finding her a brand new pair. He loses sleep, comes up with back-up plans to replace them but fails. His poor family can't afford a new pair so he decides to participate in a marathon where the third runner-up gets to take homeu00a0 brand new shoes. However, it doesn't quite work out right. Along the way there's a terrorist plot (ULFA?) wanting to create upheaval in their quiet town.u00a0
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What's hot: Priyan succeeds in creating the right mood for the film. Even though he keeps the location ambiguous for a long time before someone says Shillong, the characters fit perfectly in the scenic setting. When there are child actors involved there's always the fear of them turning out either super cheesy or just plain boring. Fortunately both Darsheel and Ziyah perform exceedingly well. Priyan creates moments highlighting the simplicities of a child's life like the world coming to a stop when you don't have proper shoes to wear, or the plain pleasures of finding a playmate to play catch. Ziyah is a find, with a natural charm and right effervescence; she fits the part perfectly.u00a0
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What's not: There is an agonising wait for the ball to start rolling at some point in the film. Priyan takes too long to cut to the chase and start telling his story. We get the fact that he needs to establish his characters, but once that's done why the delay in taking the action forward? Scenes of Pinu and Rimjhim exchanging shoes before the other goes to school get monotonous and lethargic. Also watching a tiny tot run across fields in large shoes over and over again serves no purpose other than the fact that the poor girl must have got a really big treat waiting at the end of the shot. One can't turn a blind eye to the crude product placement of a shoe brand in the climax, and then cut to another shot of a health drink being guzzled down by a kid. Talk about making a film on a 'shoe-string' budget! Atul Kulkarni is earnest and stays true to his brief while Rituparna doesn't have much to do. The terrorist angle doesn't add or take away anything from the film. The second half needs heavy trimming and the fantasy song with giant shoes only adds to the already impending doom.u00a0
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What to do: Priyan's version of the Children of Heaven doesn't hold a candle to the original. Lengthy second half and weak script makes it a dull affair.
