The Blue Umbrella
- the name itself carries an adjective: a color describing the umbrella through which the author has conveyed such a poignant message. The author is none other than our favorite Ruskin Bond. Yes, this film is a beautiful adaptation of his novel by the same name. It has been directed by “Makdi” fame director, Vishal Bhardwaj.
The Main Characters:
Biniya(Shreya Sharma)
Nandkishore Khatri(Pankaj Kapoor)
The Plot:
The story is set in a small village in North India. Nandkishore Khatri is the owner of a small, roadside tea stall by the name "Khatri Stall" frequented by tourists. He has a young 10-12 year old naughty assistant, who once steals a jacket from a tourist. Khatri is a miser, who has a weakness for pickles and loans knick knacks from his shop to small kids, to later lure them off their stuff. Once he keeps a boy’s binoculars, since he has not settled his account.
Binya is a cute, little, darling who inhabits the same village with her mother and body building wrestler brother. Khatri maintains a safe distance from Binya’s brother. One day, she spots a blue umbrella. She has never laid eyes on anything so beautiful. She is so enchanted, that she trades her bear claw’jantar’ for the frilly, Japanese umbrella.
Her umbrella causes a stir in the otherwise peaceful atmosphere of her village. Binya’s umbrella disturbs Khatri’s peace of mind. He decides to own a similar umbrella, but the cost of 2500/- deters him. Thereafter, start his attempts to lure Binya off her umbrella, by gifting her Helium balloons, promises of free biscuits, 2’phuljari’s’ on Diwali and 1’pichkari’ on Holi. Another villager’s wife Lily also wants to posses the coveted umbrella. But alas, it has become Binya’s lifeline and she takes it along everywhere. Khatri’s assistant seeing his master’s disappointment, advices him to steal it. That’s when Khatri recalls, what he was taught in school, "Chori karna paap hai".(Stealing is a sin).
A few days later, when Binya is grazing her 2 buffaloes, lovingly named Neelu and Gauri her blue umbrella mysteriously disappears. The villager’s eyes accuse her of carelessness. The loss shatters her and the once chirpy and bubby darling starts staying gloomy and sad. She apprises the police of her suspicion on Khatri and gets them to search his house, but in vain. Khatri cashes on this incident also to gain the fellow villagers sympathy.
Then one fine day, a courier is delivered to Khatri’s house. It reveals an umbrella identical to the one Binya had, except that this one is red. This new article now becomes the talk of the town. Kids run after Khatri, singing and dancing. Khatri poses with his umbrella for the tourists. He’s even generous enough to loan it to Lily in lieu of pickles. The innocent villagers realize their mistake and apologetically request him to be the Chief Guest of the ‘Annual Wrestling Competition’. After much ado, he agrees.
Binya meanwhile could not join the festivities. She is restless and wants to unravel the truth. She traces the courier sender’s address and reaches a dyer, who confesses his role.
Meanwhile, in the village the Chief Guest has started his speech under the shade of his huge, beautiful, priced possession. But as luck would have it, it starts raining and next thing we know, Khatri is sitting on a stool surrounded by a red pool. The dyer’s color was not that ‘pakka’(fast).
The villagers are ashamed of his act and declare him an outcast. Khatri is lonely, ageing and shunned by the society. He still does not give up. To keep the dough coming, he stands at the corner of the street calling kids, "Do biscoot ke saath a toffee free"(One toffee free with 2 biscuits). But no one comes near him.
Atlast, one day Binya visits him and leaves him the umbrella, without his knowledge. On seeing the umbrella, he regrets his actions and tries to burn, tear and destroy it. Later, he runs after Binya and hands her the umbrella. Binya returns it to him saying, it’s yours and runs away gleefully. **’Khatri Tea Stall’ is renamed’Chatri Tea Stall’.
*My take on the film:-
1.Moral:** It was assumed to be a Children’s film, but I feel all of us adults also had a lot to learn and imbibe from this story, what I leave it for readers discretion.
2. Screenplay was brilliant. The locales were breathtakingly scenic and beautiful. I give it a 5.
3. Music: Lyrics by Gulzar were simple, keeping in mind the simple fairytale and the music rendered by Vishal Bhardwaj himself is soul-stirring and melodious. I loved the’Neeli Asmaani Chatri number’. Music deserves atleast a 4.
4. Performances: Pankaj Kapoor is a veteran actor. His dialogue delivery was impeccable and undoubtedly deserves 5. Shreya Sharma fitted Binya’s shoes perfectly and gets a 4. The side actor’s performances are not worth mentioning.
5. Overall, in this era of senseless comedies and action flicks, this movie came as a breath of fresh air.
I would definitely recommend this movie to all my friends with our without kids, who appreciate good, meaningful cinema.
Thanks in advance for stopping by and feel free to rate, review or comment.