Stanley Ka Dabba

There is a scene in the movie when the teacher gives Stanley a chocolate as a mark of her appreciation towards his beautifully written essay. With a sheepish smile, Stanley takes it amidst generous applause from his friends. He then tries to put that chocolate into his shirt pocket only to find to his dismay that the pocket is torn and is no good to hold his chocolate. This is one amongst the many bits in the movie that fall into place at the end.

Stanley ka dabba is a story of a kid who is special in his own ways. On the exterior he comes across like any other kid who narrates stories to his friends, sings songs during class breaks, and doesn't miss a chance to have fun. But, the only shortcoming here is that Stanley doesn't get a lunch box to school. It's a problem only according to his Hindi teacher Khadoos Verma but Stanley's friends like all kids have no qualms about sharing their dabbas with him. But, Verma who himself doesn't get a dabba is always preying on others' dabbas gives Stanley a piece of his mind and asks him to get lost till he doesn't get a dabba of his own to school everyday. This point in story leads to the big climax of the movie which I must confess is one of the most overwhelming and extremely touching ending to have seen in recent past.

This movie is all about the magical moments held together by threads of simplicity and honesty. Amole doesn't employ any overtly comical, emotional scene to score brownie points. The movie just floats in a good pace giving enough depth for the characters to evolve and get identified by the audience. He sets up the proceedings so brilliantly that the viewer can't really help but feel like he is in the same class as Stanley's and is actually looking at everything happening right there. And of course, all this culminates into one fantastic climax that'll remain etched in the viewers' memories for long time.

Amole Gupte was last seen in 'Phas Gaya Re Obama' and 'Kaminey' donning the actor's hat. Before that, he was credited as writer and creative director for the beautiful 'Taare Zameen Par'. He comes back with this movie, now managing all the major departments and delivering a movie that's just sheer genius of art.

Amol Gole, the cinematographer of this movie shot it in a hand-held Canon 7D camera because they didn't want to scare the kids away or make them nervous as the kids didn't know at that point in time that they were shooting for a movie !! Yes, the kids were told that these were regular acting workshops and only in the end were they informed about it. These are the things that make this movie look life like and come across as a simple story with an honest intention.

Hitesh Sonik's music and Amole Gupte's lyrics gel so well with the scenes that they seem like dialogues between characters but with a difference.

The kids Abhishek Reddy, Saisharan Shetty, Aman Mehra, Walter D'souza and others have all done a brilliant job considering that they are the real supporting cast of the movie. Divya Dutta as the charming English teacher who Stanley admires a lot is brilliantly casted. Divya Jagdale and Raj Zutshi are good as well. Amole Gupte as the khadoos teacher just carries on the great work he has been doing lately. But, if this movie has to be remembered for one person then it has to be Partho Gupte(Amole gupte's son) who plays the central character of Stanley and seems so natural in every dialogue and action of his as the lovable kid.

What stands out in the movie is the amazing control that Amole Gupte has on the narration of the story. Never does he let the rhythm drop and displays great control on his direction. For me, the dabba was a metaphor for what Amole wanted to convey through this story. It was a medium for him to give out the message in the end.

Its not everyday that I quote Karan Johar but here I go. On the day of the music release, he said, 'There is no mainstream or alternative cinema. There is good cinema and bad cinema, Stanley Ka Dabba is very good cinema'.

Yeah, Stanley Ka Dabba is one of those movies that'll try to give out a message without trying to be preachy or dumping that thought heavily on the viewers' minds.

As an avid movie-watcher , I get disappointed when I watch tons of mindless and stupid movies churned out by the movie industry but still hope that every now and then on a Friday there is a movie like Stanley releasing!

'Stanley Ka Dabba' is a GEM of a film. Writer-Producer-Director-Actor-Cinematographer, Amole Gupte, makes a film, that is soft, simple & seamless. It doesn't have superstars, it doesn't have chart-buster songs, it doesn't have stunning locales to boast....but what it has...is a Big Heart!

'Stanley Ka Dabba' is a nearly flawless film about a child, who comes to school without a Dabba. And as he can't get a Dabba, a greedy school teacher, who hogs from every Dabba in the school, kicks him out of the school. It's then Stanley's journey to get to back to school, with a Dabba!

'Stanley Ka Dabba' is one of the most moving, well-written & well-executed films in the past 5 years. It has a story to tell, it has it's heart at the very right place. Amole Gupte is truly a supremely talented personality. 'TZP', was a fabulous film, but 'Stanley Ka Dabba' is a nearly flawless cinema. Apart from it's slow-pace in the beginning, I found everything, in terms of writing, direction, acting, cinematography as well as the editing, to be super.

The Soundtrack is decent. Performance-Wise: Gupte, steals the show with a fascinating performance. He plays the greedy teacher, with perfect understanding and rare ease. Partho, who plays Stanley, is very sincere. Divvya Dutta is good. Raj Zutshi & all the other actors who portray the roles of the teachers, are first-rate.

On the whole, 'Stanley Ka Dabba' is amongst the best films in the past 5 years, as it has story to tell, which is simple, seamless & very interesting too. Don't Miss This One!

What worked:

• amazing screenplay; sweet and simple yet powerful
• awesome performances by the lead especially two

Gupte What did not work:

• although it's a hard reality, but we as a viewers wanted to end the movie with better optimistic conclusions. However, the ending in itself, is powerful and appreciated.

Final verdict: Recommended

Stanley Ka Dabba - a plain storyline, with the regular Indian school setup and largely unfamiliar cast - is a well-scripted,well-characterized brilliantly directed movie that leaves you with an immediate freshness that rarely many movies can do.

Its the story of Stanley, a 4th standard student in a missionary school. Stanley and many of his friends are the quintessential restless,playful and curious kids. They play,share stories,learn together and yes share their "Dabbas" (lunch boxes)-the central plot of the movie,as you can make out from the title. The story is pretty straight-forward here on. You have the different characters in the teachers. A strict and no-nonsense science teacher, A beautiful and encouraging English teacher. However the teacher who takes the cake(quite literally:) ) is the ever-hungry and mean Hindi teacher(Amol Gupte).

the movie never loses its flavour, displaying with beauty the innocence and puerile nature of the kids and the rhythmic monotony of everyday school that we've all been part of.

Amol Gupte has definitely made one of the best kids-oriented movies in the Indian cinema sphere. Not only is the direction top-notch, he has even acted brilliantly as the insatiably hungry teacher,who shows no shame in eating out of his students' lunch boxes. Special praises to Partho who has done such amazing work as Stanley, and Divya Dutta who just by her sheer screen presence brings in positivity to the frame.

When i saw the title and even until the movie started playing in the theater, I thought this was a children's movie.But soon realized it was a wrong notion. This movie is as much for adults as is for the kids.If you want a break from the regular humdrum of Hindi cinema and want to see meaningful cinema without the preachiness (like Taare Zameen Par) then go watch Stanley Ka Dabba, cause u wont be disappointed. Kudos to Amol gupte for taking the viewers on a nostalgic trip back to school and special mention on how dexterously the message has been woven into the story.

Way back while watching François Truffaut's "400 blows" a desire to watch a matured Indian film on a child protagonist cropped in my mind. Thanks to the changing wave of Indian cinema Aamir Khan gave us the brilliant Taare Zameen Par in 2007 which was the creation of Amol Gupte (He was the creative director of the film). In 2011 Amol Gupte came up with heart warming Stanley Ka Dabba which reflected the potential he had showed with the screenplay of TZP. Stanley Ka Dabba starts with a highly zoomed shot of a warm day with a school kid (that's Stanley superbly played by Partho) with bruised face, little shabby yet jubilant walking towards the camera. As he enters the school and changes the calendar followed by a sleepy moment of ecstasy within himself reflects the monotonous schedule of a lonely child who is happy with his own supposed peaceful existence. He is the star kid who is good at everything from books to ball without any air of arrogance. His friends and teachers all love him except Khadoos , an appropriate title given by the 4th standard student to their Hindi teacher Verma Sir (played by Amol Gupte). Verma sir is an unapologetic glutton who pounces on others tiffin (dabba) be it the teachers or students. The cold war between Verma and Stanley starts with later not bringing much awaited Dabba for Verma sir to pounce upon. With a beautiful cat-and-mouse game the student gang of Stanley makes Verma run all around the campus everyday till the group is caught red handed. Without revealing the climax it is the emotional journey without getting too filmy that touches the right chord. With Verma realizing his mistake to the oxymoron brutally sweet climax it keeps the viewer engaged and at the end one leaves the hall pondering on certain aspect of Indian society that needs to be taken care for freedom of more Stanleys in real life.

Amol Gupte made a path breaking debut with Stanley Ka Dabba which tells simple uncomplicated story even though it reflects a complicated story about some harsh Indian reality. To tell his story the writer (again Gupte himself) did a commendable job in creating few characters around which the story revolves and took his sweet time in creating each characters. The teachers are sketched out of reality. Rosi Miss (played beautifully by Divya Dutta) is the loving English teacher who is a lady with gentle heart is someone everyone of us again identify. Similarly there is a strict science teacher Mrs Iyer (played by Divya Jagdale) who is not among favorites. Each teacher has been given adequate screen time as needed in the screenplay. Verma Sir (aka Khadoos) is a well edged character and when one expect a filmy flashback on Verma sir's life the writer keeps it subtle making Verma a symbolic extension of Stanley (and different Stanleys in the society). But then to keep Stanley and Verma in the same plane would be blasphemous. While Stanley is symbolizes Friendship and humanity Verma reflects selfishness within.

The technical department played a crucial role in defining the mood of the theme with fabulous use of camera(DOP by Amol Gole) that zooms in amateurishly to speak about the restlessness with Stanley's character or in the scene where Verma Sir looks at the dabba. The scene reflects Dabba being an important character in the narrative. Deepa Bhatia does a commendable job in the editing department and same goes to the sound designer who specially during the rehearsal sequences uses right beats of guitar telling us about the joy inside Stanley. The music is effective by Hitesh Sonik who uses the right instruments for respective moods added to it awesome lyrics by Amol Gupte again to add on to the cream. Specially "apne andar kahin chupa hai ek Stanley" the lyrics speaks some thousand sentences. And the poems in the film are intelligently human that reminded me of the marvelous poem in another masterpiece film Udaan. (like Udaan I sincerely hope Stanley too wins lots of awards in film festivals and awards)

Amol Gupte avoided filmy clichés and forced emotions while writing the story. He didn't go overboard and in his own lethargic space creates a beautiful world of Stanley and provides a cushion of happiness for the audience. But then suddenly in the flight of happiness he punches hard with a thudding twist that breaks the cushion. Yet the end is optimistic and about hope. The movie didn't come with a sledgehammer and all to tell audience about some problem instead it just tells a story about a sweet child n his problem n how he moulded his life to live in an innocent and optimistic way. A heart warming tale of friendship and belonging that makes "Stanley Ka Dabba" a must watch.