Khatri's Chhatri
[ek simple kahani]
I have just returned from watching one of the beautiful movies in the recent times. And yes, I was not alone J. The cinéma vérité is another crafted gem, for the common man to savor, from Vishal Bhardwaj’s treasure after OMKARA but contrastingly simple. If OMKARA leaves you awe-struck savvying how can one limn-out such complex emotions so realistically, The Blue Umbrella leaves you mesmerized stomaching how can one portray such impeccant emotions so naturally!
I was completely transfixed and lost in the story. If you ask me to tell the story, it would end in a wink. Here it goes - once upon a time there lived a comely gal in a small village of northern india who, on an ordinary day, is gifted a not-so-ordinary beautiful Japanese blue umbrella which soon catches envy of the whole village with each one trying his bit to possess it but none as concupiscent as Nandlal Kishore Khatri - the village shop keeper - so much so that having failed to buy a similar kind, he agrees to raise his child-servant's salary in lieu of the coveted umbrella, aaaaaannnd soon goes the umbrella missing but no one has a clue whose done it. Biniya becomes as forlorn as a young demoiselle deserted by her lover on the d day and nothing appeases her, neither the schadenfreude-laden phoney empathy of the villagers nor the sincere plea of her brother, finally on the spark of firm suspicion she lodges a complaint against Nandu making Police raid his shop in-front of the whole village only to disappontment of biniya and to the ire of Nandu who on this ignominy swears to taste the pickle only after he has bought a similar umbrella, aaaaaannnd so arrives a similar umbrella … only a red one!
Soon, Nandu becomes the cinesure of the hamlet with same attention being bestowed on him as the old owner and this leaves Biniya only more unhappy. In revenge, the conceited Nandu also stops selling things to girl’s house. However, fate has his turn and quite a quirky one. In elation of being honored to preside over as chief guest of the village akhada (as a mark by the villagers to undo the wrong which was involuntarily done by his house being raided and all suspecting him to be the theif), does the mistake of addressing the crowd in heavy rain which finally removes the red color of lie over the incandescent blue of truth.
Having been caught red-handed, the whole village outcasts Khatri, so much to the extent that as a viewer you would plead to forgive his foible - no one invites him to any social gathering, people evade him contemptuously publicly alluding to his thievery, no one buys anything from him, even free, with fear of being polluted by association to him in any form and kids jeer at him with humiliating slogans – “Nandlal kishore, Chatri chor” - and that is what happens, Biniya sheds all her anguish breaks the tacit fatwa by voluntarily buying biscuits from his forsaken shop and also consciously forgetting her Umbrella there. Nandu seeing the umbrella first goes unrestrained with the first-love-like joy, then delirious with anger aaaaannnd finally collecting his virtues runs teary-eyed to return it to Biniya recognizing this to be his the god-sent last opportunity to redeem his self-esteem. Biniya, with all-forgiving joyful tears in her eyes and completely-accepting generous smile just says - "ye meri nahi hai, by chance". And you are just left high and misty in the crescendo - only wanting more!
Music only adds more life to the story and lyrics, of the one and only one Gulzar, makes you admire his ever-expanding frontiers of soil-flavored imagination.
Pankaj Kapoor, like the old wine, only grows finer movie after movie, and makes you feel that there are some artists who are really inimitable - comparing them to anyone else is an injustice to the perfectionist and even more belittling to the one compared!
And finally, hats off to the multi-talented perfectionist – The Bhardwaj, one who is soon becoming the touchstone of finesse. I foretell today that he would one day surely conquer the Oscars, that one day he would leave an indelible stamp of his mastery as the most sublime cinematographer and as the finest enrapturing story-teller.
The tale had me so much occupied that I forgot that I was not alone – and quite happily JJ
Epilogue - Could not stop myself writing after watching this pleasant flick.
