Watts of inspiration. Sensitive storyline. Yards of screen
presence by the Nanhe Jaisalmer. That about sums up the film that tugs at your
heart strings and makes you cry out of joy. Yes, the film has got a soul and
you can feel it. Both the child and the adult can relate to this film and gather
enough strength to face any obstacle. That’s the selling point of Nanhe
Jaisalmer. It engages you in a child-like manner and entertains the child
within. If the camera were to face you, the audience, instead of the film on
screen, the possibilities are of an audience smiling gleefully at Nanhe’s
antics, his trials, his tribulations, his idiosyncracies, his ‘adult’ and child
friends, his pre-occupations and his family connections.
Which brings me to the story.
Nanhe(enacted remarkably well by child wonder Dwij Yadav) is
a 10-year-old tourist guide who has been keeping the home fires burning from the
age of 6. Since one of his uneducated ‘adult’ friends educate him that people
learn to earn, he decided to give schooling a miss because he was able to earn
without it. Not just that, he takes pride in the fact and goes about his life
with much warmth and love, chewing gutkha and indulging in just one passion:
living and dreaming about his friendship with Bollywood actor Bobby Deol. How
did this develop, you ask? Well, when Nanhe was just four years, he had done a
bit part in Deol’s film where the actor called him his ‘dost’. Since then, this
infatuation turned to a crush and then ‘love’ for a long lost friend.
Deol becomes so much of an obsession for Nanhe that it
prompts none other than Deol to buckle under the pressure of his innumerable
letters – a testimony of which are the vertical strokes marked all over Nanhe’s
door that indicate the number of letters he has sent to his star. Before you
wonder how Nanhe can write, well, he actually dictates his letters to his
loving elder sister who dutifully writes it down and checks back with him every
now and then to see if certain phrases need to be changed for political
correctness. It is scenes like these that grab your attention and there are
many such scenes that showcase the throbbing soul in the film.
There is the scene when Nanhe meets Deol for the first time
in the desert sands. Just like Shah Rukh Khan in the climactic scene of Chak De
loses his balance and somehow manages to rest on the boundary line
advertisement boards when the hockey team he coached wins the World Cup, our
Nanhe here actually falls down and sits on his side only to stare at his idol. You
feel the same relief that he feels in this frame and you feel happy that his years
of dedication has finally borne fruit. But no, if you think that about sums up the
story, you are wrong. The story only begins from here. So what’s the rest of
the story? Well, just watch the film. Can’t give away the plot, can I?
This is a film that deserves to be shown in all schools and
colleges, old age homes and orphanages, and at all the theatres, talkies and
tents, and in every nook and cranny of the country. And yes, all **the state
government’s should make this film tax-free** to encourage a lot more people to
watch it. It’s about an Indian boy and his dreams, it’s about how his dreams
come true and it’s about how there is nothing bigger than a person’s imagination.
If you still can’t imagine what the film is all about, my suggestion: just
watch it, and preferably with your entire family. It’s not just a children’s
film.
What’s more, some bit of it **reminds you of Lage Raho Munnabhai
and Sanjay Dutt’s ‘chemical locha’.** Was the scriptwriter inspired by this? No
idea. But there sure seems to be some resemblance. Any which way, it’s a great
effort by writer-director Samir Karnik who was assistant director to Vidhu
Vinod Chopra and debuted as director with the eminently forgettable **Kyon! Ho
Gaya Na Pyar in 2002 starring Vivek Oberoi and Aishwarya Rai**. Samir could well
be labeled the next film factory because there are going to be two more releases
within the next six months – his next film Roshan also starring Bobby Deol and
Dwij Yadav is slated for later this year while his third film Mera Bharat
Mahaan is scheduled for Jan 2008. **If Nanhe Jaisalmer is about ‘will’; his next
film Roshan is said to be about ‘hope’ while MBM is about ‘pride’.*
Nanhe Jaisalmer should do well in the multiplexes, though I
am not sure if single screens can absorb the full impact of this film because
there are things that this film lacks which the hit film Heyy Baby had in
abundance. Here are a few suggestions that could have made Nanhe Jaisalmer reign
at the Box Office:
- The publicity of the film
was ‘thanda’, including the film poster which just shows a small boy and ofcourse
our Deol da puttar. Over here, Heyy Baby scores. Though the film is all
about a few months old baby, there is no sign of the baby in the poster.
You are conned into believing that the baby in question is Vidya Balan who
figures in the poster. That’s a wonderful marketing gimmick that worked. In
Nanhe Jaisalmer, maybe they could have got Bobby Deol in two avatars: one
is being himself and one where he is a dwarf but his face resembles the
actual ‘nanhe’ in the film. What’s more, these two faces could stare at
each other while nanhe’s mother and sister look at them from down below.
This could have created a lot more curiosity than what is shown in the
existing poster.
- The script is very one-dimensional.
It just runs on an even track. There aren’t any twists and turns like you’ve
seen in Heyy Baby. Agreed, the story’s premise is inspirational, but the
length of 90 minutes demands a lot more surprises to ensure the story
reaches a crescendo. This doesn’t happen with Nanhe. So much so that the
fantastic climax is diluted because the proceedings that lead up to it don’t
just match up.
- Songs are forgettable and
so is the music. There is no lilting music, the kind you heard in Iqbal…
this film needed a certain melody that comes up whenever there is
something inspirational on screen. It’s a big letdown.
- Bobby Deol as a
10-year-old’s inspiration is not believable. If it was **Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir
Khan or Hrithik Roshan**, I would have believed it more. But I guess, these
top stars would have said ‘no’ to this film which is why the producer had
to go to whoever was available.
- The scriptwriter could
have given more life to the characters surrounding Nanhe like his ‘adult’
friends and his mother and sister. This way, he could have had some comic yet
memorable songs and scenes that could have lifted the film from its one-track
proceedings and infused more character and variety in the film.