There is an ideal scenic, lush-green small mountain village somewhere in Himachal Pradesh, where everyone knows everyone else. Having plenty of time around, Nandkishor (Pankaj Kapur), a shabby shopkeeper in this village – is lying on a charpoy, headphones plugged into his ears, listening to his fortune. (Blue Umbrella movie review).
The mechanical voice assures him that one day he would be richer than the richest man on earth. He enjoys it…
Biniya (Shreya Sharma), an eleven-year-old girl who finds a beautiful, blue umbrella, and everyone is enchanted by its form and beauty including the small shopkeeper Nandkishore Khatri.
While the girl goes on flaunting her blue umbrella all around this small town, to her friends and everyone, Nandkishore has his plans to swindle the umbrella from her. Biniya, though ready to share her possession with friends, steadfastly counteracts any offers attempting to part the umbrella from her possession. As she merrily goes bouncing around the village, quite a few village people would want to wrest the umbrella from her grip.
Next, the umbrella is stolen. The heartbroken girl suspects this crafty shopkeeper –Nandkishore, and she gets the policemen to ransack his shop which fails to lead to the missing blue umbrella. Well what now?
This leaves Nandkishor being hurt and annoyed, and his pride stung. He proclaims one day he too will own such an extraordinary and colourful umbrella. A few weeks later, the whole village is shaken when a bright red umbrella arrives at his door.
Now Nandu’s umbrella is the talk of these villagers who once suspected him in the first place. Parading merrily around like he owns the town, letting eager villagers “touch the umbrella” he even poses grandly with tourists who want to have their picture taken with this umbrella man. Ironically, now the same village even wants him to preside over the annual wrestling match, supposedly a status symbol in this tiny town.
Here the inventive child Biniya carries out her own investigations to uncover her umbrella thief. The film is simple in its narrative and the proceedings become interesting after the umbrella goes missing. The story not just captivating, but heart touching too.
Child actor Shreya Sharma is remarkable and is very natural throughout the movie. Credit ought to go to the director who could manage such an unusual performance from the debutante.
The movie unfolds masterfully, though at a slow pace with the story beautifully describing issues of loss, longing, exclusion and loneliness brilliantly on the whole.
Its an engrossing film which has a well-balanced blend of fable and realism.
TECHNICAL CREDITS:
Banner : UTV Classics
Producer : Ronnie Screwvala, Vishal Bharadwaj Pictures Pvt. Ltd.
Associate Producer : Ram Mirchandani
Executive Producer : Sarita Patil
Director : Vishal Bharadwaj
Music Director : Vishal Bharadwaj
Lyricist : Gulzar
Story Writer : Vishal Bharadwaj
Dialogue Writer : Vishal Bharadwaj
Screenplay Writer : Vishal Bharadwaj, Minty Kunwar Tepal, Abhishek Chaubey
Editor : Aarif Shaikh
Art Director : Nitin Wable
Production Designer : Sameer Chanda
Costume Designer : Dolly Ahluwalia
Sound Designer : Dara Singh
Line Producer : Vikas Mehta