Almost two decades back Gulzarsaab wrote an interesting song for Hrishida’s movie Khubsoorat. The song was Qayda qayda and it created a beautiful fantasy world for us. It also had some really ‘mouth-watering’ lyrics; Oonchhe oonchhe teele hote khulfi ke…Ghaas falooda hoti…. Khet mein ugti toffee, pedh pe palte laddoo-pedhe aur nal kholo to coffee! Wow! Amazing, isn’t it? It takes you to this adorable imaginary world. It was picturised quite cutely too. Of course, it lacked high-end visual effects because of technical limitations. I always wondered how this fantasy world would look like.
For me, this fantasy world came to life when I recently watched Charlie and the Chocolate factory.
Based on the Roald Dahl book. It is a story of an ordinary boy named Charlie, who gets extraordinarily lucky.
Charlie Bucket comes from an impoverished but loving family. Charlie’s father works in a toothpaste manufacturing company and can barely make ends meet. Charlie’s family lives under the shadow of Mr. Willy Wonka’s famous giant chocolate factory. Wonka’s chocolate factory has a mysterious story; many years back, Willy Wonka had announced his factory as ‘closed’ and had asked all his workers to go back home. Charlie’s old and tired grandpa was one of them. Inexplicably though, the factory’s chimneys continued to throw out smoke even after closure, indicating production of chocolates. The circulation of Willy Wonka’s chocolates weren’t affected after the closure and Willy Wonka remained world famous. Surprisingly, no one has ever seen anyone go in or come out of the factory, making it all the more mysterious.
Then one fine day… Willy Wonka breaks his silence and sends a message to the people, inviting five lucky children to a tour of Wonka’’s chocolate factory to get a special glimpse of the wonders within. But there is a little problem with Mr. Wonka’s invitations; the five golden tickets are sent out all over the world, hidden in Wonka’s chocolate bars and kids have to find them! Willy Wonka also declares that one lucky kid will win a GRAND prize.
People all around the world go mad and are ready to give anything to possess Wonka’s golden ticket. Some of them do hysterically weird things to own the golden ticket and finally, amongst the five lucky winners are a spoiled rich girl; a gluttonous kid; a champion trophy gum chewer; and a techno-savvy kid who spends more time watching TV and playing video games than anything else. All these kids are rich and get their tickets without any efforts whatsoever.
As luck would have it, Charlie, who can afford only one bar every year on his birthday, miraculously finds the fifth and last golden ticket and goes on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure with his grandpa.
When he and the four other brats meet at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the adventures begin; from a sail in the chocolate river to a ride in Wonka’s bizarre lift to a walk in the garden made of chocolate and cream, to being sent to a television set by technology to meeting Wonka’s superbly efficient staff of Oommpa Loompas….
Most fascinating of all is, the eccentric and mysterious Willy Wonka himself.
Who wins at the end of the adventure? Who is Willy Wonka and what is his story? What happens to those spoilt brats? And what’s the GRAND prize? Well, did you actually think I’d tell you everything? Hahahahaha…
The characters and the actors:
Willy Wonka: When I first saw him, I thought he was just another good-looking actor but when I saw some of his films, his incredible acting enthralled me. Johnny Depp is his name and he is mmmmmmm... a real eye-candy!!! Wonka’s character could’ve turned out to be just another frivolous fictional character, which wears funny clothes and makes funny faces. Johnny Depp adds new life and oddity to the character. He wore make-up and I think even trimmed his eyebrows to make his character look eccentric. His body language, his facial expressions and even his fumbling, adds a lot to the character of Willy Wonka. Depp is truly amazing as the quirky chocolatier, Willy Wonka, who has had a bad childhood. I don’t think anyone could’ve done it better than him.
Charlie Bucket: Played by Freddie Highmore. He is an amazingly gifted natural actor. There are some highly emotional scenes in the film that this kid has done flawlessly. One of my favourite scenes is when Charlie tells his parents to sell off his golden ticket so that they can get some money to support their family. It seems Johnny Depp had requested him to play Charlie Bucket in the film. They both worked together in Finding Neverland. In this film Wonka and Charlie slowly build a kind of non-direct friendship in which Wonka knows Charlie is the best of the bunch even before the crap hits the fan with the other kids. Depp and Highmore’’s performances make this believable.
Oommpa Loompas: There are 165 cocoa-crazy Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and one single person play every one of them. He is Deep Roy, who is from Indian origin and is just 4.4” tall. Deep Roy played every Oompa-Loompa himself, repeating the same movements several hundred times. While these were then put together digitally, each Oompa-Loompa represents a separate performance by Roy. In recognition of this, Roy’’s salary was raised to $1, 000, 000.
Also, the chocolate factory adventure is interspersed with some outstanding song and dance performances, for which Deep Roy had to take Pilates and dance lessons. Deep Roy excels in the role of the ‘expressionless’ and superbly efficient Oommpa Loompas.
Helena Bonham Carter and Noah Taylor play Charlie’s parents. They have very few scenes in the film.
David Kelly play Charlie’s lovable and wacky grandpa
Interesting trivia about the film:
Robin Williams, Nicolas Cage, Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Jim Carrey were all considered for the role of Willy Wonka
This movie is the fourth Burton-Depp collaboration in 15 years.
40 squirrels were trained for the scene where they pounce upon the character Veruca Salt.
Quite a lot of the chocolate things such as trees, flowers etc featured in the movie were created by chocolate shop Choccywoccydoodah in Brighton, UK. The shop displayed and sold some of the creations in the shop after the release of the film.
Johnny Depp’s second chocolate-based movie (the first being Chocolat (2000).
110, 000 plastic bars were made and wrapped in Nestlé wrappers and Nestlé provided 1, 850 bars of real chocolate for the film.
Why to watch this film:
It is in every way a genuine Tim Burton-movie, stacked with beautiful imagery, wacky humor and bizarre characters (his other films: Edward Scissorhands, Planet of the Apes, Batman, Sleepy Hollow, etc.)
For some great visual effects (chocolate river, fudge mountain, nut room, etc.)
For an excellent soundtrack by Mr. Danny Elfman and some amazing dance sequences performed by the Oommpa Loompas.
For its universal appeal; watch it with your parents, children, grandparents, movie buff-friends, nephews and nieces ... they will be equally delighted!
Last but not the least, for some great acting I found it to be very very chocolaty.
However, if you are one of those who hate films that showcase a fantasy or dream world, you may not like it!!!