What one expects from a director of films like Makdee, Maqbool and
Omkara? nothing but a film straight from his heart with awesome
performances and thats what Blue umbrella gives us . its a beautiful
little film that makes us smile with just its innocence.
the story of a film taken from Ruskin bonds novel "The Blue
Umbella" is of binya(shriya) a small village girl who is enjoying her
life singing and dancing and a Nandakishore who was greedy and was
known for taking other persons things in exchange of something. Binya
once comes in contact of a Japanese Umbrella to which she gets
fascinated and decides to take it in exchange of a locket . the
umbrella makes binya the talk of the village with everyone talking
about out . NAndakishore(Pankaj kapoor) too starts longing for the
umbrella and tries whatever he can to take the umbrella but shriya
doesnot agree . hen Binya’s umbrella is stolen – the police raid
Nandakishore’s shop. Facing this humiliation and to show that he too
can afford or buy an umbrella, Nandakishore orders a similar Japanese
Red Umbrella. Once the Red Umbrella comes, he gains back popularity and
respect from everyone in the village. During a wrestling bout where he
is the chief guest, it rains and the Red Umbrella starts loosing out
color and shows that it was the Blue Umbrella. The villagers decide to
boycott Nandakishore and outcast him from the village. Nobody talks
with him, nobody buys anything from his shop. He faces poverty and
humiliation again. But this time it teaches him a lesson of life. Once
when Binya forgets her umbrella at his shop, he understand the miseries
that the Blue Umbrella caused him and honestly goes back to return the
umbrella to Binya. But Binya shows grace and generosity by saying that
the Blue Umbrella does not belong to her. The movie ends there…
Its a short little story but beautifully done by VB . this film shows
us loss, greddiness loneliness but still amkes us smile . VB is a
brilliant director and he shows us with this film. its his most
accomplished work till now and one really have a respect for him for
choosing a subject like this . he for sure looks like a director with
passsion with no eyes on cash registers.
Shriya is good in her role . Pankaj Kapoor gives a performance for
which one dont have words for it . The guy who played a pujari in dharm
now plays Nandakishore with such sincerity one truely believes that
hindi film industry has not done justice to this wonderfully talented
Actor . just watch out for his diction in this film or for that matter
his walk or his expressions showing loneliness or joy its wonderful.
now the only point against the film is too slow and not for
everyones cup of tea. one needs a particular mood for seeing this film
.
This film could ahev been perfect for oscars its beatifully captured,
is short and not much fault in screenplay . but what can one expect of
a jury that headed by the director of sins and red swastik .
P.S. this film was earl;ier titled chatri chor and was due to
release in 2005 before omakra was made but duie to some reasons its
released was postponed.