Rating: ***
Writer-director Tanmaya Shekhar’s maiden effort at filmmaking brims over with the righteous indignation of a dedicated student at his first job interview. He must get it right. He must make all the right moves. He can’t afford to fail.
And he doesn’t. Tanmaya’s sincerity is moving, in spite of the rough edges and amateurishness in the storytelling. Some of the actors are perceptible novices, and no harm in that.And there are innumerable episodes in the film when we can see the writer-director grappling with his vision.
Every individual associated with this endeavour is committed to making this world a better place.
The two protagonists of the film Molshri and Shivang(played by likeable actors of the same name) convey a disarming lack of artifice in their personality. They reminded me of Genelia d’Souza and Imran Khan in Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na: what if Genelia was a closeted activist and an incorrigible literacy fanatic, and what if Imran was a closeted homosexual?
That dual detail apart Molsri bullies Shivang,a la Genelia and Imran, gets him to agree to her wildest schemes, including stealing food from the canteen and educating children who don’t want to be educated.
When their educational institution’s dean (Danish Hussain) grants them a chance to educate a bunch of chawl childen rather than be rusticated, Molshri and Shivang grab the opportunity with both hands.
On several occasion Nukkad Naatak derails by dint of its overweening righteousness. Tanmaya Shekhar’s tone of narration tends to get didactic and turgid. But his unvarnished idealsm,often bordering on naivete, never falters.
There are two predominant strands in the storytelling,one is Molshri’s streetside activism and the other is Shivang’s coming-to-terms with his homosexuality. The two plots move at their own pace. At one point of Shivang’s journey into self-acceptance he befriends a porn actor on the internet and asks his financial assistance. Such leaps into fantasy don’t disburse the film’s fathomless funds of probity.
At a time when cinema is all about blazing guns and flaring nostrils, here is a little gem which is all heart and no manipulation.
