Film: Halkaa
Date: 03.09.2018
Director: Nila Madhav Panda
Cast: Tathastu, Ranvir Shorey, and Paoli Dam.
Psychiatrists say that if you see your image in the mind if a child you will not recognize yourself.
This is a story of children, yes but also dreams and making them come true.
Seven-year-old Pichku/ Tathastu lives in the slums with his cycle rickshaw driver father/ Ranvir Shorey and factory working mother/ Paoli Dam.
The 10×12 room has everything the family needs except a toilet. The mother wakes up early to go to the fields. The father walks with a bottle in hand and relieves himself on the rail tracks.
Pichku, unlike his friends, has a problem relieving himself in public so has to manipulate new ideas every time to do his private act indoors and not get caught by his parents.
Pichku has a dream, he wants to build his private toilet and works very hard to make it come true!
There are 4 reasons for watching Halkaa:
One and most important, the unusual, refreshing story.
Director Nila Madhav unfolds his story without the slightest fuss and frills. He walks you down the narrow, filthy lanes of the slums introducing you to his various characters and their concerns.
Two, the treatment. Shot in real locations the reel actors dressed in worn out, stained costumes blur with the existing locals engaging you in a narrative that is both emotional and humorous.
Three, the message and that is everyone has a right to privacy and dignity.
Four, the intention. This is clearly not a film to showcase India’s poverty to the rest of the world.
It is a poignant tale of perhaps personal experience.
Tathastu as Pichku and Gopi as his friend is a treat to watch. Ranvir Shorey and Paoli Dam inhabit the hut as if they’ve lived there all their lives.
But finally, the film belongs to the technical team -the cinematographer, the composer and the editor.
Take a bow National award-winning director Nila Madhav, you are India’s Majid Majidi.