The storywriter of the critically acclaimed film Taare Zameen Par (2007) once again creates a magic on the big screen through his directorial debut in Stanleyka Dabba.[break]
Sometimes you really don’t need to scratch your heads to find an extraordinary story for a film. Any little thing that goes around, if collected together, can find real ways to reach your heart. Stanleyka Dabba is one such film, which has no fancy stories, no fancy cinematography and locations, but still appeals in many ways to touch you where it really matters.
After Taare Zameen Par, storywriter Amol Gupte did not need to prove to anyone that he has what it takes to make it big in the Bollywood. As a director of Stanleyka Dabba, he makes it loud that he is “Jack of All Trades and Master of All” too.
Stanleyka Dabba is one of those few films made in Bollywood that reminds you of great films by Satyajit Ray like Apur Sansar or Pirkoo’s Diary.
Unlike in Taare Zameen Par where director Gupte deals with a psychological/biological disorder – dyslexia in a child – this time, his endeavors engage more in a humane story in a normal behavior of a 10-year-old schoolboy.
Gupte turns out to be as much a psychologist as a filmmaker when it comes to dealing with the children in this film. The fact that all the characters in the film look so real and comfortable with all what they are asked to do is an example of it.
What makes this film more realistic is while the children in the film give their sterling performances, the adults are just adults with all their eccentricity, whims and secret distress.
The story is simple yet enriched with thousands of emotive expressions of childhood.
Stanley (Partho Gupte) is the only student in his class without a dabba (tiffin box). While his friends try to get him to share their foods, he however is not that comfortable with this, and rather fills up his stomach with tap water from the school’s toilet to avoid sympathies from others.
However, he starts sharing his friends’ lunch on request but the greedy Hindi teacher – Mr. Verma (played by director Gupte) – is bothered. He forbids Stanley from attending the school till he brings his own dabba. The story unfolds further with a tight screenplay and plots that has many stories to tell within the duration of two and half hours.
Through a simple story, director Gupte deals with different aspects of childhood – the bond that children have with their friends, the relationship children share with their teachers, how easily a child’s imagination can be ruined in fraction of time, and how casually adults behave brutally to children.
And what makes the film extraordinary are real life-father and son Amol and Partho Gupte standing opposite to each other in the film, yet it does not give us a hint that they are related in any way.
Without any celebrated names from Bollywood, Gupte paints his canvas with the vibrant colors of his characters who make a lasting impression on your mind without you having to realize it.
Among the teachers, the most heartwarming is Divya Dutt as Miss Rosy. She gives us an emphatic echo of Simi Garewal’s character in Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker. Divya brings as much warmth in the classroom as she brings it inside the staffroom.
Director Gupte as a Hindi teacher suits best to a character of a greedy teacher who is constantly waiting for the break time so as to sneak into the tiffin boxes of the students so that he gobbles it all.
Stanley becomes an obstruction to Mr. Verma because he is the most popular boy in his classroom, adored and fed by everyone. Stanley’s missing dabba then becomes a metaphor and an irony to his mysterious life.
Stanleyka Dabba further opens a world of innocent and premature pains.
Without making you feel like you are being preached about anything, the film tells you about everything about a world where children are often not safe in the hands of those who are actually to safeguard them.
After watching Darsheel Safary in Taare Zameen Par, I never thought that any other child could bring up so much of understated emotions into a character.
Having watched Partho in Stanleyka Dabba, my opinion is no more the same. In fact, I can say that for many more years in Bollywood, no other child would be able to produce the same emotive expressions.
Screening at QFX Cinemas
The writer is Program Officer at Indian Cultural Centre.
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