Blue Umbrella

Rating: 5/10

The Blue Umbrella belongs to that not-so-rare breed of childrens films which are fun for neither children nor adults. The CD cover says it was the official selection for Lucas 2006 International Childrens Film Festival at Frankurt, and had its international premiere as the official selection at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2005. Frankly, that seems to be part of the problem, because The Blue Umbrella will be liked more by film festival juries than by its primary target audience children.

Before I tell you whats wrong with it, lets get over with what its about. A Japanese tourist gives the little girl, the heroine, a beautiful Japanese umbrella. An unscrupulous old codger, played by the great Pankaj Kapur, sets his eyes on it and gets it stolen. The rest you can guess.

Im very surprised that Vishal Bhardwaj, who debuted with the very enjoyable childrens film, Makdee, could turn such a great story into a film which is only occasionally fun. Isnt a childrens film supposed to be fun, first of all? Will children even pay attention to the morals and lessons of a film if their primary feeling while watching it is mild boredom?

Vishal Bhardwaj is a multi-talented man writer, director and composer. After Makdee, he made Maqbool, a critically acclaimed film with great performances all around, but I never got around to fully watching it even after two attempts. Then he made Omkara, his best work, a splendid adaptation of Othello whose most memorable feature was Saif Ali Khans Langda Tyagi, one of the greatest villains after Gabbar Singh. Next came The Blue Umbrella, and heres where I think Bhardwaj went wrong: I think he was still stuck in Maqbool/Omkara mode. The tone of The Blue Umbrella is nowhere near the playfulness of Makdee, which it should have been. Instead, its treatment is more noirish, with lots of dark lighting, slow moments, moody atmospherics and in general, an attitude of taking itself too seriously.

The Maqbool/Omkara hangover is what goes seriously wrong with The Blue Umbrella. A childrens film should be fast, to cater to their limited attention spans. I, an adult, was looking at the clock as early as the 21^st minute. It didnt help that just a couple of hours ago, Id watched Chain Kuli Ki Main Kuli, a far superior film in every way except for Pankaj Kapurs performance. CKKMK was a load of fun, fast and bright. The Blue Umbrella was a bit of a chore to sit through, slow and unnecessarily dark. The beauty of Himachal Pradesh is highly underused. I wouldnt mind watching CKKMK a couple of times more, whereas I wouldnt be able to confidently recommend The Blue Umbrella to my other kid cousins.

Another problem area is too much focus on the villain rather than the heroine. We get to know him much better than her and find his character much more interesting. I havent read the book, so I cant tell you whether this error stems from the source. Batman and Batman Returns had the same problem they might as well have been named Joker and Penguin respectively.

Id written recently that you can make fun movies out of nonexistent stories and crappy movies out of wonderful stories. Chain Kuli Ki Main Kuli is an example of the former, while The Blue Umbrella, like Eklavya, isnt actually a crappy movie, but I fail to understand how a film can be said to be for children when children themselves dont find it very much fun.

Bottomline

You might like this film if: You like Pankaj Kapur. Hes great here. Unfortunately, little else is.

Would I watch it again? Sorry, Mr Bhardwaj, but no. You should have gone back to Makdee mode instead of staying in the Maqbool/Omkara mode.

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