Yesterday I went with my neighbor friend and her kiddo, to see “STANLEY KA DABBA”.
This film was the most ‘Emotionally Touching” movie I have seen till today! Since I’m not that much of a Movie Review Writer, I don’t much remember the names of the Movie’s Crew Team. I just sometimes, manage to know the names of the Top Stars acting in the film. So it may not be a Review, but maybe it can be called a ‘SHARING OF FEELINGS’ with you all.
The movie focuses on ‘CHILD LABOR’. A simple sweet story, played to ‘Perfection’ by the child ‘Stanley’, taking you through the kids school life. He’s cute and loved by all his class-mates. He’s brilliant in his studies. But he’s the worst dressed, shabby uniform, torn pocket, face always with some bruises or dirt marks, but the Most Heavenly Smile !!
Whoever has written this story or directed this Movie are real Fab Guys !! To portrait a Social Cause of ‘CHILD LABOR’, with the ‘Tiffin Box / Dabba’ , as the Theme……..Its just Superlative !
This little boy is a ‘Sweetheart’ !! He comes early morning to school. He gives the most imaginative excuses to any questions asked to him. Like when the teacher asks him, how he had bruises on his face, he says that while coming to school, he saw a big boy fighting with a small boy and he went there, to see, and tried to help the small boy and had a fist fight with the bigger boy. And Everyone believes him, even the Audience.
At Recess time, when all his friends are having their tiffins, he looks at the food, his mouth watering at the delicious snacks his friends have in their tiffins, and he runs out of the class and goes to the school tap and drinks water continuously, till his stomach is full. Then he goes back to class. A real heart wrenching way to show, how the little boy tries to make do with water instead of tiffin snacks in the school recess !!!!
He’s so cute, lovable, funny and mischievous, his class-mates love him, as he’s always entertaining them, singing songs, telling them stories..(all this before the next period teacher comes in). Then when his friends ask him why he does not bring his dabba (tiffin), he again makes up a story that his parents have gone to Delhi and so he could not bring his tiffin. So his friends start sharing their tiffin with him. (I wish all kids would practice this habit of sharing with their poorer friends…..).
Sometimes, his fav teacher would ask him, if she cud drop him at his house, but he humbly declines, saying that his mother is coming in the car. Once his friends ask him to stay late after school and play football. And one of the rich kid, in his gang carried his mobile secretly in his pocket. So they ask him to phone his mother and tell her that he will come late after school, because of the football match. And the incredible acting he does, making a drama of dialing a number and then speaking to his mother and getting her permission………..its just so appealing !! Never once does his friends or teachers or even the audience feel that he is pretending he is happy !!
Here, there is a teacher who is a through Foodie and also does not bring his snacks tiffin like other teachers do and loves eating from other’s dabbas (tiffins). He is always against Stanley because the kids share their tiffins with Stanley and not him. So one day he suspends him cruelly from coming to school if he does not get his own Dabba (tiffin). His friends are worried day after day of his absence from school and frantically search for him and find him loitering on the road sadly.
Its in the second part of the movie, where poor Stanley’s grim status comes to light. After school, he goes to his distant related uncle’s restaurant-cum-bar, where he works after school, cleaning tables, handing dishes, washing and scrubbing in the kitchen. His parents had died in a bike accident and he was left with this distant relative uncle as his guardian, who misuses him as a labourer in his restaurant.
He has the cook in this small restaurant as his friend and comforter. His uncle slaps him for coming late one day after a school concert and that explains how he used to have bruises on his face sometimes. (and see the sweet child, made an excuse of getting into a fight with some boys, instead of telling anyone the vicious life he lives through daily……………!). His confides in his cook friend and tells him of his punishment from the teacher, not to come to school till he gets his own dabba. And the cook helps him out, by filling a huge tiffin carrier with all the day’s remains in the cooking vessils.
And so, our valiant little hero, proudly carries his tiffin box and goes to the same teacher who suspended him and opens the entire dabba and offers him the food to eat, telling him candidly that “YEH STANLEY KA DABBA HAI” (this is Stanley’s Tiffin). The teacher is distraught, with his guilt at harassing a small kid and he resigns his job with shame, keeping a letter for the boy Stanley, asking his forgiveness.
And our little champ, Stanley, proudly brings his dabba daily, consisting of the left over foods from the restaurant. And see his incredible sharing nature. Everyday, he shares his dabba, not only with his class mate friends, but also with his teachers in the teacher’s room. And they just love the delicious restaurant food and ask him, who made it, and he unquestionably replies that ‘HIS MOTHER’ has cooked it and that she got up at 4.30 in the morning to prepare the Paneer and went all the way to Dadar to buy the potatoes…………his chatter non-stop…….his face happy that he is able to share his own Dabba ! This scene is the most heartrending scene.
The movie ends here, and I am not able to get up form my seat, as I am sobbing wretchedly, looking at this little spectacular boy, compromising so humbly with his miserable life.
How many of us, hide our problems from outsiders, our friends, colleagues ?
How many of us, have the spirit of smiling at our problems ? How many of us suffer hurt and pain without making a show of our misery ?
How many of us always maintain a happy mood and happy face, inspite of life being unjust to us ?
How many of us, have noticed under-aged children, working in small restaurants or chai shops or at construction sites, retail shops, servants in houses…………….and have bypassed it, without a batter of our eyelids ?
How many of us, have helped a poor child being abused in life ?
How many of us have the ‘TIME’ to ponder at this pitiful ‘CHILD LABOR’ problem and start contributing in some way, to stop this ruthlessness in our Society ?
This small child, shows us how to ‘BE HAPPY’ and ‘CONTENT’ with whatever we have.
PLEASE Do Something for all the STANLEYS of this Country !
Cattie
