‘ KAI PO CHE ’
Only Indian Film at the Berlin Festival, is a 'hit' with the critics, and the audiences.
It has an odd name ‘Kai Po Che’ ( a sports-slang meaning ‘Go for it!’ in the Gujarati language), but it’s the most-talked-about movie in India, today.
It was the only Indian film to be selected for the Berlin Festival, this year .
This was followed by its release in India ,leading to huge success with the critics- and the audience.
The highly-respected ‘Hindu’ newspaper raved ’ Go watch it. Again and again.’
The famous ‘Amul’ dairy-company , noted for its much-watched ads, created a new advertisement based on the film.
All this is unprecedented, considering that the film is a total non-Bollywood movie, with no big stars, sets, budget.
Infact, it has a brand-new cast , unique ,new theme, and is set in a little-known rural town.
Credit for the story must go to Chetan Bhagat, the most successful writer of youthful fiction in India, whose book ‘The Three Mistakes of my life’ contributed to the story of this film.
Bhagat seems to be obsessed with the numeral ‘ Three’, and the super-hit Bollywood movie
‘3 Idiots’ was also based on a book of his.
Like that film, this one has three friends as the chief protagonists , although they are not big star-names .On the other hand, they are total newcomers.
But it’s again a story of dreams, friendship, joys ,heartbreaks.
Unlike the former film,the author collaborated in the screenplay with the director.
Director Abhishek Kapoor is considered one of the exciting,new talents to watch out for, after his debut film ‘ Rock On’, created waves with its fresh theme, arresting style, brilliant music.
‘ Kai Po Che’ has the same zippy style and rhythm. But the story is more complex. It starts as a fun sports film about cricket, and suddenly morphs into a socio-political document about corruption, religious riots, earthquakes –all based on real incidents in India .
This double- tone makes it difficult to define the genre of the film or its target audience, and shows that the new Bollywood cinema is re-inventing and re-defining itself .
The totally different personalities of the three protagonists seem to symbolizes the complex psyche of the Indian nation. The director himself admitted that this movie was more complex and difficult than his earlier one.
But he also admitted that he did not expect it be so successful , both at the box-office and the festival-circuit.
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01.03.2013 | LEKHA SHANKAR's blog