Movie Review: Stanley Ka Dabba

He is a fourth-grade kid. He is accidentally lonely yet faces everything boldly. He is confident, creative and caring. He is a good story-teller and hardworking go-getter. He is liked by all his classmates though he is a virtual leader of all. He has everything: intelligence, cuteness, smartness, naughtiness, liveliness; but he doesn’t have one thing: Dabba (tiffin)! Yes, he is Stanley.

O Dear God…Big deal if he doesn’t carry the tiffin?

No big deal; it’s just that one born-to-devour- others’-food kind of glutton orders him to stay out of the class until he gets his own tiffin. Holy smoke! You want to know the reason, why? Because he targets the same kids’ big tiffins for lunch that Stanley does due to his otherwise water-is-okay-for-lunch condition. And yes, by profession, he is Stanley’s Hindi-teacher. Kids give the teacher the politest possible nick name: Khadoos. Devils look like angels if you see this Khadoos who’s nothing better than untidy, disgusting pig.

So the situation is: Stanley not in school but roams somewhere around the school while his tiffin-buddies miss him. And then this hobo-like situation of Stanley succeeds in gaining him some real sympathy from his friends and kind teachers. It also opens the eyes of Khadoos and makes him realize his animal behaviour when he doesn’t see Stanley in the class. Then, one day Stanley goes to him with his tiffin, offers him food and asks for permission to sit in the class. This brings the predictable sequence of the movie. Khadoos starts to liberate some humanly emotions which remind us that even animals have feelings but they show in their own ways. The glutton decides to leave the school while leaving an apology letter to Stanley. Everything gets back to normal. Everyone is happy and the movie ends.

Go for it or let it go?

First half of the movie is dedicated to overly emphatic character building and the latter half quickly throws reactions coupled with bare realities which end up leaving you with a societal message (which I am not revealing). I wholeheartedly appreciate and applaud the concept creation and execution backed by outstanding pieces of act by Partho (Stanley) and Amole Gupte (Khadoos). Amole emerges as the rare combo of brilliant acting, classy creativity and super story-telling. There are many sweet moments wherein every school-passed can undoubtedly connect himself with and for sure, at least once he would miss his school friends which I did a lot. Overall it is a pure and innocent emotional ride with fun-pieces in between. But if I were to put all my kind emotions aside and suggest then – if you’re in a total weekend or chillout mood, this may not be the best choice for your kinda party-minds; but if you’re in a mood to appreciate the “real good” movie, go grab a ticket for the next show, if possible with your primary schoolmate/s!