Happy Republic day to you dear Indian Reader!!
Its been a while to add some good contribution to my personal blog. Handling a company blog is a daunting task which takes even the personal interest but this is my place so I can use all the time in the world :)
Today, Iam tempted to write a review on a great Marathi movie which I chanced upon yesterday night in a theatre nearby my place. I felt I need to make a review to my non-marathi friends and open up their minds to think about the next generation kids. Our kids are innocent and they are always curious to know things and we as a parent, as a guardian have a lot to think about and answer. We always have a tendency to avoid bad influences, shaky surroundings and we keep trying to avoid questions for which answers are not right for them to hear at their age. This movie is all about it.
The movie makes a great start by a Franklin D. Roosevelt quote “We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future. ..
This movie takes a great point for discussion and dominates on the need to view few important points while upbringing our children. The name itself will ring bells for many as its called B.P. Yes, thats the name.
Before you bring your ethical devil out and start yelling, please read it till the end :)
The name B.P is abbreviated as Balak Palak ( literal translation : Child & Guardian). Ofcourse, it covers the same thing that you first thought after hearing the name. ( A Blue Film).
The story begins with a father who is completely disturbed and is thrashing his teenage son as he finds some adult CDs in his room. The boy confesses to have been seeing and takes the beating. The father is completely frustrated and the actual story begins when he asks his wife on what goes wrong. The wife narrates the story in a complete flashback mode.
The story revolves around 4 teenagers ( 2 boys and 2 girls) who are full of life. Four of them resemble the average teenagers that we know or resemble us when we were of that age. They are of the right age where there are no barriers, no evil thoughts, bubbly, naughty, mischievous and just like any normal kid, they also have a lot of questions to be asked and answers to be obtained. For these kids, every day is a new adventure, new things to learn and just the right age to get influenced with evil things.
One afternoon, in the village where they live, when the kids are returning from the school, there is a lot of chaos in the neighbourhood. They get a glimpse of a 19 year old girl ( whom they know and have played with her) who is whisked away in a three wheeler accompanied by her parents amidst a lot of crowd and gathering. ( The background of this incident is that the girl had an affair and was impregnated.) Naturally the kids have absolutely no clue of these things nor they understand any terms on how someone gets pregnant and so on. In all the chaos, they overhear a typical adult term used by a typical woman (a common character interested more in interfering others lives) in the village. The term used in Marathi language in the film is " Shen Khalla ( literal translation : Ate cow dung :p) The same term is also used in Hindi as " Mu kala karke Aai. ( Blackened her face). :p
The kids somehow feel uncomfortable with the event and are confused. They try to ask each other as to what happened to that girl. Why did she ate "Cow Dung"? Why did the villagers gather for such a small issue? They feel there is something fishy about this remark. They finally promise each other to find out the real meaning for this word as they believe that the girl who got punished must have done something wrong.
Each of them try to check with their own parent as to whats the real meaning of that remark. What do you mean by "Shen Khalla?" All of them get tight slaps and return as losers. Somehow, they become more curious as they feel everyone is trying to avoid the answer and are very secretive.After a lot of struggle, one of the boys gives an idea that they should meet one of his friend who lives in a slum area and is basically an orphan aged 15years or so. This slum dweller is a typical character whom every parent would like to ensure that their kids are isolated from. He is a school dropout, has all the bad habits, knows more than an average boy of his age should know and has unnecessary answers for everything ;)
The lives of the four kids change drastically as soon as he is introduced in their group. This slum boy makes them understand on how girls get pregnant and gives them a lot of books to read and spoils all the innocence. The kids get influenced and within a short span of time, they get engaged in activities like reading porn books, doing extra work to collect money so that they can buy a porn video and watch it together. The entire outlook of seeing the world from the innocent eyes change. One of the boys and girl get attracted to each other and fall in love, while the other boy gets attracted to a girl aged 22years in the same neighbourhood. The young girl initially doesnt realise that the boy is attracted to her but he does a lot of crazy things like following her repeatedly, making regular advances by shaking hands, trying to sit next to her every now and then.
All hell breaks loose when this kid proposes the 22 year old girl :D and then she realises that he and the other three kids whom she knows personally are undergoing a lot of changes in them. She decides not to complain to anyone as it might become a big issue. She becomes concerned with the developments in the kids lives and fears that they might do something wrong. Tomorrow the kid might try to be cosy and befriend someone else. It was important to somehow change the thinking of these young teenagers.
She involves an elderly person, popularly called as Uncle, from the same village who is respected by all the villagers and is the moral police for all the young children. Together with him, they first decide to speak to one of the kids parent. He meets the boys father and tries to convey the message via a story in which he claims that a teenager of his sons age proposes to a 22 year old girl. He also mentions that it is not love but out of lust. The father, typically, an ignorant soul laughs at the story and makes fun. He claims if it was his son, it would have never happened and even if it would have, he would have killed him.
Uncle decides that it would be a disaster if he mentions to this father that it was his own son who did it. He believes that if the kids are wrong, someone has to ensure they are appraised with it and prove them it was wrong. Every kid at this age has a lot of question, and there is a need to listen to them, answer them. If it is not attended, they have their own way to get the answers and this is how they do it. There are a lot of bad influences like the Slumdweller kid and there is a need to ensure the kids do not search for their answers contacting such people.
He teams up with the 22year old girl and asks her to make the kids comfortable. She smartly convinces the kids that she also would be happy to enjoy the video that they saw earlier and manages all of them at one place. Everything is set and the teenagers are about to start watching the movie when suddenly the door bell rings. Seeing the elderly uncle makes it a very tensed situation however Uncle decides to make them comfortable and informs them that he knows what they are upto. He claims he is also interested to see it along with them. The Kids are puzzled and try to avoid the embarrassing situation to sit with an elderly man.
He tells them that he knows each and everything about them and has been watching them closely. He reveals that he also knew that one of the boys proposed the young girl. He explains them that being kids is the best thing in life and what they been now doing will only loose their innocence. He explains them that things they are watching are ugly and are presented in a very ugly way. There will be a time in life when they will actually enjoy such things in the most beautiful way. All the first things that time will be stale for them and it will also spoil the current way of looking at people. He explains them that its not a crime to know about these things however there is always a definite time for everything. He also agrees that their parents do a mistake by ignoring these things and do not explain it to their kids. He suggests them to keep chatting with their parents and add two extra friends instead of adding the likes of the slum dweller boy. He says they should keep making a try and have a constant dialog with their parents and the same should happen for parents. They also should try to slowly educate their kids.
The story ends here from the flashback and the wife who narrates the story turns out to be one of the 4 teenagers and her husband is the other. They realise that they have a lot of such negative influence in todays world like Internet, mobile phones etc. There is a need to accept these things in life and ensure to have constant chat with your kids. They decide to forgive the mistake of their child who was caught by the father and make a fresh start again in adding value and educating the child on things they are curious for.
