Childhood Memories. Review on Kitaab Movie

Let me ask you what was your wildest fantasy in childhood?

What you wanted to be in future?

Let me try, to be Superman , a Doctor , an inspector or to be a Chor, a rickshaw-wala or a train driver .Till age of 8, I always wanted to be a train Driver , who can run the train at fastest speed possible and can reach anywhere, then I wished to be Amitabh (influenced by his movies) and then Aamir (after watching QSQT , I planned for dying in love) but then the reality hit me hard and now I am sitting in front of the computer writing my random thoughts. But did you ever try to visualize your journey through these phases?? No, we don’t have time now. But yesterday, I got my hand on VCD of movie KITAAB and all those things just came in front of my eyes while watching the movie.

Movie: Kitaab was released in 1977 and was directed by Sampooran Singh Gulzar (known as Gulzar ). This movie tells us ominous and dark story of a boy’s journey, who is budding and trying to understand the world around him.

Plot: Kitaab is story of Babla , who lives in a village with her mother. His mother sends him to his sister’s place in a city so that he can go to some good school and can make a future. For first few days he liked his school and found a good in form of Pappu , with whom he started to explore the world around him to learn how to make sweets, how magician do their tricks . In the mean time he started making fun of his teachers at school and enjoyed these things thoroughly . But, when the reports of his apathy towards studies and objections from the teachers concerning his careless activities (as making mockery of teachers, singing in the classroom), reaches to his sister and brother-in-law’s ear, they started scolding him.

He tried to make them understand about his feelings but then realized that that nobody appreciate what kids think nor they realize their virtue and their perspective for life. He tried to get accustomed to the expectations which his sister and his brother-in-law expects from him but one day he decided to leave off to his village to live with his mother and ran all alone on a train without having any ticket or money.Ticket-master catches him without a ticket and makes him get off on the next station, where he meets lots of uneducated people who are living in destitution and adversity. In night, he slept under the blanket of old woman beggar and found her dead in the morning. Then he realized that existence is indeed not that uncomplicated for those who are deprived.

What happened to Babla after that?

Was he able to reach home?

What he learned from his venture?

Acting: Master Raju Shrestha as Babla has given a impressive performance as a child who is living in his own dreams and thinks that no one realizes the dreams of kids, their virtuousness and their perceptions. Raju has shown his worth as a child artists for various hot-shots of industry. But in this film for the first time he came as a hero around whom the whole movie was build up and he didn’t fail. He beautifully portrayed not only the role of a naughty school boy who has it own fantasies but also as a learner who learn through his experiences. You can just read his eyes to know what is going in his mind, especially when he realized that the old lady with whom he had been sleeping in that cold night was dead. A splendid performance. Master Tito as Pappu, Babla’s best friend and mate in all mischievous activities. His mischievousness will make you laugh like anything and I am sure he goona remind you of your good old days. Vidya Sinha as Mrs. Komal Gupta or Babla’s sister and a model working in an Ad agency had given a nice perfornace as a sincere sister who thinks of his brother future and scold him for so. Dina Patahk as Babla’s mother, Uttam Kumar as Babla’s brother-in-law Nikhil Gupta, Shreeram Lagoo as Baijuraam, Master Lucky (yeah I am talking about singer Lucky Ali aka that time) as his friend, T.P. Jain as his always sleeping English Teacher and Keshto Mukherjee as Pandit Shankar Lal had given a superb performances and helped in building the plot.

Music: The music of this movie was given by legendry R. D. Burman saab and lyrics are by Gulzar himself (as far as I know). Now coming to the songs, tell me how many of you remember the song that ends with VIP underwear Baniyaan ! Yeps I am talking about

a aa I ee, a aa e e, maastarji ki aa gayi chitthi,

chitthi mein se nikli billi chitthi mein se nikli billi

billi khaay zarda paan, kaala chashma peele kaan

din taak taak din, din taak taak din

kaan mein jhumkaa, naak mein batti , * haath mein jaise agarbatti

nahi magarbatti, agarbatti, magarbatti, agar agarbatti

agar ho batti kachhua chaap, aag pe baitha paani taap

taap chadhe to kambal taan, VIP, VIP underwear baniyaan

I still remember this song sung by Shivangi and Padmini Kolhapure and it’s picturization. This song is still famous in kids. OK , how about dhanno ki aankhon mein hai raat ka surma, aur chaand ka chumma by RD saab himself, must have heard this one cos this is still a hit number. I was shocked when I saw this number over there but it fit well in the situation. Besides Hari Din To Beeta Shaam Hui Raat Paar Kara De by Raajkumar and mere saath chale na saaya by Sapan Chakraborty were superb and according to the situation.

Direction: Gulzar is famous for his movies that are always very realistic and close to our hearts. In this movie he showed the journey of a growing child where he tried to understand the world around him. In whole movie, he thought like Babla himself to show that how an innocent child observes the world around him. He never failed to capture even a single emotion that can genuinely comes in Childs mind (be it natural disobedience or teasing his teachers or fear when he found that he was sleeping with a dead lady or desperation when he was searching for water , everything was so natural). Hit or flop, this one is will always be among the best creation by Gulzar.

My Take: Kitaab effectively portrays the psyche of young children and their wild fantasies in which they want to do everything. This movie shows the expedition of a boy not only in the world outside his fantasies but also the inside a child's consciousness where they have a thousand of thoughts to do wonders. Childhood is the best phase of anyone’s life but in today’s hectic world children are exposed to harsh realities of the world in their early childhood and are forced to delivery out of their caliber.

Throughout this movie, Gulzar stepped in the shoes of a young child and showed the journey of an innocent arrogant child who learn from the world around him and choose his fate. A must watch..