A distinctive simplicity surrounding the idyllic
nature of a small village located somewhere underneath the mammoth mountains of
Himachal Pradesh, forms the scenery of Vishal Bhardwaj’s “The Blue Umbrella”,
an adaptation of Ruskin Bond’s novella of the same name.
The film’s opening scene has Nandkishore Khatri
(played by the brilliant Pankaj Kapur), owner of Khatri tea stall, lying on a
charpoy, taking pleasure of a warm sunny morning, sucking his favorite lemon
pickle. He is busy listening to the predictions about his future via a robot;
the pre-recorded voice tells him delusional talks, which are contradictory to
the realistic persona of Nandu. He is a shrewd shopkeeper, who gives credit to
kids; in order to swindle them of their prized possession.
Biniya (Played fluently by Shreya Sharma),
a nine-year-old girl, residing in the same village is well aware of the tricks
played by Nandu and
always prefers to keep up a safe distance. One day, while
tending her two cows, her eyes spots something on the blue horizon, it is a
dreamlike moment in the film, an artistic blue colored umbrella slowly lands
right in front of her, its beauty awes her, she had never seen something such a stunning and artistically designed umbrella before. For Biniya,
it is nothing short of a star that has fallen on to her feet. Vishal Bhardwaj presents the scene in such a way, that it is love at
first sight for Biniya. She slowly places her hands on the
umbrella, delighted by its presence; she makes it a part of her life, even
going on the verge of exchanging a bear claw to a group of Japanese tourist to whom the umbrella originally belonged. She has felt the coldness under its soft paper like canopy, its opulent bamboos, and wants to experience its delicate ruffles.
Everyone in the
village, astonished by the visual of little Biniya holding a blue umbrella under the
snowy skies of Himalayas, but Nandu, who is not merely stunned, but rather fascinated over the umbrella, he doesn’t like the pendulum of attention
swinging towards Biniya’s way. He approaches Biniya,
and offers her candies, sweets, and pulls out many more lucrative proposals to exchange
the umbrella, but always ends up getting a clear “NO” in response. There is a
marvelous scene in the film, where Nandu carrying
colorful balloons, approaches Biniya and
offers less than 1/10th of
the price of the umbrella (He got the actual price
from a city store, but didn’t had the required amount), assuming he would
defraud her. Nandu receives
yet another rejection, leading to a point where the balloons flutter away
leaving Nandu all
alone, simple yet a deep metaphor of Nandu’s dreams to hold the umbrella
getting beyond his reach.
At this
point, Nandu’s assistant asks him “is the oversized umbrella worth
it?” Nandu replies with some extraordinary references to clear his
motive, which for me forms the crux of the story, because there are certain
moments in our lives where our fixation over any person, book, movie, city,
food, TV Series or a non-living object empowers any rationalization, and
we are not even bothered about any second opinions, till the point its aura
surrounds us.
“Is seeing a rainbow on
a sky worth it?”
“Is making a paper boat
float in the water worth it?”
“Of what worth is
watching Sun set behind the hills?”
“One cannot put a price
tag on the peace that the soul is in constant search of” He explains, and
claims that he and umbrella are soul mates from some earlier birth.
There is a deep
attachment, which Nandu over the time has grown for the blue
umbrella, which has become a symbol of pride and paradoxically according to his
subconscious mind, a catalyst of peace. He is resolved in his quest to conquer the blue umbrella.
Soon after all the
failed efforts on Nandu’s part to get the guardianship of the
umbrella, Biniya lose her most valued possession, she is heartbroken,
devastated and the same village who stood in awe upon
seeing Biniya walk into the village like a queen with the umbrella
see her walking through rains without it. Biniya is totally lost, she
has nothing on her mind but the blue umbrella, she suspects Nandu’s
involvement, but fails to prove it. Meanwhile, the suspicion has hurt Nandu’s
ego, and he swear to get a similar umbrella, and till then will not taste his
favorite lemon pickle.
Nandu finally gets
his hands on a similar red color umbrella; everyone in the village is yet again
in awe by its sheer magnificence. I wonder there is something alluring about
the umbrella that caught everyone’s attention yet there are only two people,
who takes a step ahead and make it an important part of their life, the
difference being that while Biniya applauds the delicate nature of
the umbrella, Nandu makes it an issue of ego satisfaction to have it
under his ownership. The pendulum of attention swings towards Nandu; he
has now become a center of attraction for the villagers.
However, Nandu does not acknowledge the gracefulness of the umbrella;
he is too preoccupied to massage his self-esteem.
There is an astute scene
in the film, which portrays the dichotomy
between Biniya and Nandu’s attachment with the
umbrella. Nandu is to travel via a bus, unable to close the umbrella
and get inside the bus; he makes a turmoil scene out of the situation. It leads
to him trying various awkward ways to close the umbrella, suddenly
comes Biniya to his rescue, tells him “It doesn’t shut like this”,
and takes the umbrella from Nandu, feel the touch of the bamboos, and
effortlessly close it. Nandu holds the umbrella close to him
and Biniya watch him leave, it is an emotional moment, and tells you
how much the umbrella means to both of them. While Nandu holds the
umbrella close to his heart like how a mother would keep her newborn
baby, Biniya, on the other side simply gaze at them going further away
from her. A momentarily separation epitomizing the nature of both
the lead characters and their affection for an inanimate object.
The decisive moment
occurs; Nandu’s ploy is finally out in the open, the red color embedded in
the umbrella leaks out under rain. Panchayat order boycott of Nandu, and
returns the umbrella to Biniya. The winter arrives soon afterwards, snow
descends like pearls from the sky, the entire village sprinkles with silence,
as if mourning for Nandu’s embarrassing act of stealing an umbrella from a
little girl. He is lonely, broken, and probably guilty of his act, but there is
no one to notice that, and the kids he once conned, now mock him as
“NandKishore Chatri Chor”. Supposedly, a Himalayan Bear walks through his shops
roof, scared for his life, and yet no one to ask, Nandu terrifyingly
resorts to a corner in his small room. Nandu is resolute to not leave
the village, despite all the insults and loathe thrown at him from the
villagers.
Biniya feels the
regret floating inside the abandoned Nandu. She goes to his shop, and buys
candies, without mocking him or making him realize of his acts, she leaves, and
moments later Nandu realizes she has left her umbrella. He takes the
opportunity and takes the umbrella inside his tiny room, Nandu gets a
personal moment of solace with the umbrella, he is not in atoned with the
situation though, he blames the umbrella for transforming him as a person, he’s
fed up of the umbrella, which once was a catalyst to his peace of soul.
The thing about “The
Blue Umbrella” which made me really love the film, in the first place is an
innocent appeal of the story along with the atmosphere
that Vishal Bhardwaj creates with his distinctive narration. A
tricky genre in literature that he picks; Fable, which could have easily
resulted into a one-dimensional children’s film, but it turns out into a
film that has a universal appeal. Ruskin Bond’s short stories, novella’s,
novels always has a certain kind of earthiness, charm,
straightforwardness, utmost honesty, real characters with a moral dilemma,
realistic situations and to Vishal Bhardwaj’s credit, he never
dilutes those characteristics in his adaptation. More
so, Vishal Bhardwaj gives Ruskin Bond’s fable a deeper
perspective with an intelligent use of the umbrella as a metaphor, which is
very subjective in its nature; it could be a figure of desire, love,
greed, status, attention-triggering object. The story might seem too rural in
nature, but even if placed under urban settings, it would make viewer smile,
because it is more about the emotions of the characters, and their transformation
as individuals.
I
wish Vishal Bhardwaj would complete his trilogy with another
film in this genre, where he places a young actor with a veteran, like in case
of the scheming “Makdee” (Shweta Prasad along
with Shabana Azmi). During “The Blue Umbrella”, it
was Shreya Sharma, who shared screen time
with Pankaj Kapur, hopefully in the third film; we might see a young
kid with Naseerudin Shah.
Only if we could discover happiness in small events of our life like Biniya does when she holds the blue umbrella.
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