Chintu Ka Birthday (Chintu's Birthday) is a difficult film to review because although it has its heart at the right place the constant flipflopping between comedy and thriller made me slightly uncomfortable both as a viewer enjoying good cinema and a discerning entertainee trying to not describe such a proceeding therefore as contrived. The idea of a sweet, small Indian family of five trying to celebrate its youngest member's birthday in a war-torn Iraq soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein is a unique one. And I love how the film takes place within the span of a few hours and yet does not lose sight of time. I don't know who comes first in acting here when you have Vinay Pathak as the father who will remind you of your own paternal figure, or the supremely talented and film festival feature usual Tillotama Shome whose one smile is enough to make you fall in love with whatever character she is playing (and she also sings in this with Seema Bhargava), or Bisha Chaturvedi the daughter whose expressions have been shot so well you will love that particular scene when she's looking at her father, that brave man who just rolled some magic into the wind because all he wants is to celebrate the birthday. I struggled a little with the overzealous performance and slightly pretentious writing of the Iraqi character played by Khaled Masso as well as the mercuric characteristics of the two American soldiers who enter the screen sometime in the second act but when I look at the underlying message and the idea that has been used to convey that, I cannot stop singing praises of Chintu Ka Birthday, a film that is as sweet as the marvelous vertically scrolling animation snippet that takes you into itself at the beginning softly narrated by Vedant Chibber the innocent-looking young boy who plays Chintu. TN.
(Watched at a limited screening at Matterden, Mumbai.)
