REVIEW: Chillar PartyA DECENT KIDDIES MELODRAMA
Is it because this film is co-produced by Salman Khan that the kids in Chillar Party are so arrogant, or did their brashness prompt him to endorse the project in the first place? Whatever the case may be, it takes a while to get used to the idea of kids from a regular middle-class colony using tapori language and acting way older than their years. And this is even before a boy called Fatka, from the other side of the class divide, arrives on the scene with his mongrel Bhidu and messes up their vocabulary even further.
Directors Nitesh Tiwari and Vikash Bahl have created an authentic mainstream children's film with the kind of highs and lows regular watchers of Hindi cinema can anticipate miles in advance, but being suckers for sentimental drivel, look forward to nonetheless. I am one such, and even though I started off objecting to the representation of the colony kids, their enthusiasm and innocence eventually won the day.
Like all children's films, there's a moral science lesson in store for kids and adults alike—so even while these kids are bonding with Fatka, taking up his cause and eventually fighting a bully on national television, the filmmakers are preaching about social equality, unity, compassion and so on.
A minister gets offended by Fatka's dog and decides to rid the city of all strays. The kids take up for Bhidu and start a campaign to let him stay with his master—this involves, amongst other things, a chaddi march, which seems sort of distasteful, but because they are now firmly pulling at your heartstrings, you let it pass.
Although the film takes forever to narrate its simplistic tale and the second half meanders too much, you come away feeling it wasn't all that bad after all. For the kids' performances and the mushy exposition, Chillar Party is worth a watch.
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