A Sonnet of Heresy

Zor Lagaa Ke... Haiya! - A good children’s film

by Noyon Jyoti Parasara

Originally published by AOL India

Cast: Mithun Chakraborty, Gulshan Grover, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ashwin Chitale, Hardik Thakkar, Ayesha Kaduskar, Ritwik Tyagi, Meghan Jadhav, Riya Sen

Director: Girish Girija Joshi

Producer: Basant Talreja & Kartikeya Talreja

Music: Bapi-Tutul

Rating: ***

Just last week we were talking about children’s films made in India rarely appealing to children, and how directors more often than not fall for pleasing the adult audience as well through the same film. Looks like debutant director Girish Girija Joshi has been taking note of all such shortfalls. And it’s quite a pleasant surprise that his maiden effort not only shows him capable of handling emotions well, but also telling a story in quite a likeable way. In ‘Zor Lagaa Ke… Haiya!’ (ZLKH) he gives us a light and beautiful children’s film which is also relatable to adults.

The specialty about ZLKH is that it has kids behaving like kids. They crack innocent jokes, play like children, are scared of the roadside beggar and have school assignments to take care of. In fact the whole story starts with their plan to get one up on the beggar who ate their cake! And since they are scared of him, they plan to keep an eye on him till the appropriate time. For this they decide to make a tree house.

The film is essentially about a tree and how the five kids fight for it against all odds. And they are helped by the same beggar who they refer to as Raavan (Mithun Chakraborty). Karan, Priya, Laddu, Ritesh want to steal the beggar’s bag where he hides his ‘weapons’. Hence they plan a tree house to keep an eye on him. Ram, the child of a construction labourer, helps them make the house, and in the process becomes a member of the team. However, soon the children get close to Raavan when they understand he is harmless. But there is a new threat. Bakshi (Gulshan Grover), a builder who wants to cut the concerned tree so that he can make an entrance to his building complex from that direction.

What’s interesting about the way the story has been dealt with is the fact that while the director keeps to the central point of the tree, he also cleverly gets in some other social concerns. For example the uncertainty of life and shelter for a construction labourer (Ram expresses that he wants to be an architect and not a labourer when he grows up), the mentality of people that ‘felling one more tree is not going to mean much’ etc. are brought out convincingly and yet they do not eat into the basic story.

Performances by the kids are enjoyable. Hardik Thakkar, Ayesha Kaduskar, Ritwik Tyagi, Meghan Jadhav are impressive as Laddu, Priya, Ritesh and Karan respectively. Particularly impressive is Ashwin Chitale who plays the labourer’s child, Ram. He returns to screen after wowing the audience some years back with the awarding-winning Marathi film ‘Shwaas’, which was chosen as the Indian Oscar entry over ‘Swades’ in 2004. Mithun and Gulshan Grover are delightful while Mahesh Manjrekar carries on with his well-known comic timing. Riya Sen has just two scenes and about five lines of dialogues.

Overall, I would recommend ‘Zor Lagaa Ke Haiyaa!’ for children as well as adults. For adults because at some level we are also a party to the massive tree cutting expeditions that are wrecking havoc on the environment. Over 20000 trees are cut in India alone every year. It’s time we get aware of the importance of saving at least one tree at a time.

PS: Amitabh Bachchan does the narration and speaks for the tree!