Bioscopewala Movie Review: It Is A Small Film With A Big Heart!

Movie: Bioscopewala

Starring: Danny Denzongpa, Gitanjali Thapa, Adil Hussain, Tisca Chopra

Directed by: Deb Medhekar

Rating: *** ½ (3 and a half stars)

The last time I saw the grossly underused Danny Denzongpa in a central role it was in the Bengali film Lal Kuthi . Danny was a powerhouse of volcanic eruptions in this forgotten film.

Significantly Bioscopewala, which blessedly offers Mr Denzongpa a chance to be at the helm, is all about regret guilt , almost-forgotten memories and the magical power of nostalgia to invoke the purest form of desire which comes only to those who know how to give unconditional love.

Straightaway, Bioscopewala lodges itself into the recesses of our parched hearts. With its artless freewheeling audacious adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s deeply moving story Kabuliwala the film sets up a wistful picture-perfect world of regret and heartbreak. The fragility and yet the miraculous permanence of a relationship that grows between an Afghani migrant Rehmat Khan(Danny Denzongpa) and a little girl Mini(played by the wonder Miraya Suri) recalls Ashok Kumar and Sarika in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Ashirwaad

I was afraid of what the relationship would look like in the presentday context of sexual predators stalking every corner of India. It was a different world when the great Balraj Sahni befriended and bonded with little Mini in Bimal Roy’s Kabuliwala.

But an aging Afghani man bonding with a 5-year old girl in the 1990s???

First-time director Deb Medhekar tears through all cynical readings of Tagore’s classic story to tell us that the age of innocence is never over. There is always room for compassion and camaraderie , no matter how low the moral aspirations of a civilization falls.

Medhekar in a script co-written with Radhika Anand secretes tenderness and empathy in every frame. Every moment is magical , every teardrop worth treasuring. A sizable portion of the film’s aesthetic astuteness is attributable to Rafey Mehmood’s cinematography.Mehmood makes every frame a vista of reined-in emotions . There is certain restrain and temperance in the storytelling rarely seen in films about human relationships.

Here is a film that is as beautiful in feeling as it is in appearance.And no small gratitude for this gem of a treat to the performers. Seasoned actors Tisca Chopra, Adil Hussain and Gitanjali Thapa pitch in fluent performances. But it is Danny Denzongpa who stands tall in a role immortalized by Balraj Sahni. He is at once virile and emotional , child and man, yin and yang. He sweeps the character’s innerworld into his own persona to render a character that Balraj Sahni and Bimal Roy would have recognized.

As for Rabindranath Tagore, I can see him being a bit confused by the liberties taken with his story. But then life as well as art is subject to constant re-interpretations. Who knew this better than Tagore?