Film Impressions

REVIEW: Bumm Bumm Bole (3)

DON'T MESS WITH MAJIDI

Majid Majidi’s Iranian film Children of Heaven (1997) is a masterpiece… a film so simple that it is as poetic as haiku, and its layers emerge slowly like fragrance. It talks of family relationships, love, sacrifice and grace.  The film put Iranian cinema on the world map and won an Oscar nomination.

 
It wouldn’t take genius to remake the film as it is, and it would appeal to audiences anyway.  But Priyadarshan had to go ahead and “Indianise” it—which means add songs, melodrama, a terrorism angle too violent for kids,  and embarrassingly in-your-face product placements.

REVIEW: Bumm Bumm Bole (2)

YOUNG 'UNS HOLD THE FORT

The filmmaker Priyadarshan is now increasingly known for the broad strokes with which he paints his motion pictures, notwithstanding an occasional foray into the realm of award-winning cinema (last year’s Kanjeevaram). His new film is not an exception to this rule, and much of Bumm Bumm Bole is indelicate and loud, except when the events on screen are buoyed by two irrepressible central performances by the young actors, Darsheel Safary and Ziyah Vastani. As the brother who, having lost his sister’s only pair of shoes, spends the entirety of the film in the quest of another pair, Mr Safary demonstrates that the toothy charm so effectively deployed in Taare Zameen Par (a song from which gives this film its title) hasn’t yet reached its sell-by date. Of course, due to the antecedents foisted upon him by his blockbuster debut, he is called upon to assume the mantle of a ‘super’ actor and in the end it’s the winsome toothiness that wins over the proceedings, and not really some hidden reserve of raw talent. He survives the curse of the ‘showcase’ and does indeed carry the film on his shoulders.

REVIEW: Bumm Bumm Bole

NO CHILD'S PLAY

I haven't watched Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven (1997) on which Priyadarshan's Bumm Bumm Bole is based, and plan to remedy that right away. Having seen his other critically acclaimed work Color of Paradise, it's hard to believe that Majidi's original could've been anything like the remake. Imagine a children's film opening with a gruesome bomb blast that straightaway warrants a U/A certification. For me the exercise in watching this film was to try and identify the portions faithfully copied from the original, and elements forcibly inserted by the Indian director.