Kitaab

This is one of the great story about the vulnerability of growing up kid. He gets lost, rans aways from his home , and finally comes back enlightened with time he spends with Fakir on Train. This is a must watch and quite entertaining as well.

Years back, Kitaab was a special kind of movie directed by Gulzar. This is a gloomy and dark story of a boy, who is growing up and he try to understand the world around him. This is a journey of a boy in whole movie... not only the outside but also the inside of a child's psyche. I can't forget the presentation of very famous song in this film by RD Burmun, "Dhanno..." At that time, means 1977 there was a debate everywhere about the parenting and child psychology. This is a very different way that Gulzar presents in his movie. His point of view is entirely different from that concepts that was the the topic of debate in that time. In whole movie director thinks like a child. So you can understand how a child observes the world. A remarkable creation by Gulzar.

This is a Hindi language film by Gulzar.

The film's theme is on the turbulence of childhood; a rare coming of age film from the 70s, and thus in a way a trendsetter in Indian films. Master Raju was a superstar of sorts in those days playing a young child in films - usually the hero's character from when he was child to give some background to the story. But in Kitaab, Master Raju's character Babla is the central character of the film. The film shows a child - rebellious and indisciplined - runs away from home and goes through a lot of struggles.

You get a view into the mind of the child and full credit to Gulzar to not playing defensive or playing to the gallery. He portrays children as they truly are, even naughty to the extent that they deserve a scold or spanking at times. The scenes showing them smoking though crossed a line for a family film and could have been avoided.

Otherwise an adventurous, engrossing film with a lot of lessons for growing up children.

The story is told mainly in flashbacks through the eyes of a little boy who dislikes school, his childhood and can't wait to grow up. But what could have been a proper story on a child's psyche is wasted in repeated scenes of the same thing(school admonishing the child for instance). The backdrop is provided by the fact that our protagonist lives with his sister and her husband in Delhi and the former indulges on modeling. This creates tension in the household but even that is not explored properly and seems like an opportunity wasted.

The few small songs this film has are irrelevant to the story and neither stand the test of time(but then, apart from few classic films from Hindi cinema's golden age, most films have very trite song sequences). What I really disliked was the acting. Apart from Uttam Kumar, it felt like an amateurish cast and the child essaying the role left a lot on the drawing board. I couldn't help but compare it to Raj Kapoor's 'Boot Polish' which had much superior acting from it's child protagonist than this film.

Some might consider it an obscure gem from the art house circuit but everything from that genre isn't enjoyable or worse, relaying a point. This film is such an example. Significant amounts of potential it had, but it relayed much little in the end.

This movie effectively captures the thinking of young children and their fantasies of the grown. Childhood can be a bliss but in todays hectic world children are often exposed to the realities of adulthood. This is funny yet sensitive story of a child and his sister who works as a Model in an Ad Agency.