A strong reprisal against war and negativity
Some stories touch you. Some make you think. Some make you enjoy. When you have all three put together, the result is Chintu Ka Birthday. This astounding story of a six year old kid of Indian origin in Baghdad gives you all three experiences in a film of 83 minutes duration.
Storyline
War turns many lives upside down. When there is hatred and blood shed around, the lives become devastated as happened in the case of the family of Chintu (Vedant Raj Chibber).
The family of Chintu comprising of his parents Madan Tiwari (Vinay Pathak) and Sudha Tiwari (Tillotama Shome) with his Nani (Seema Pahwa) and sister Lakshmi (Bisha Chaturvedi) arrange everything for sixth birthday celebration of Chintu in Baghdad where Madan works as a salesman selling water filters.
Chintu wakes up to another day with many expectations on his birthday. Above all goodies planned by his family members, the birthday cake is on top of the wish list of Chintu followed by a celebration which is to be attended by 25 friends.
With the entry of Mahdi (Khalid Massou) the local landlord friend of Madan, the whole birthday celebration of Chintu goes for a toss. In place of joy, its despair and fear with explosions everywhere. How Chintu goes on to celebrate his birthday amidst chaos and war is what the remaining part of story is about.
Performances
Its sheer delight to watch Vedant Chibber in the pivotal role of Chintu. He is cute and delivered dialogues with great ease like an experienced artiste proving that his selection among 1800 odd applicants is aptly justified.
Vinay Pathak in a restrained role of Chintu’s father is known to excel in these kind of tailor made roles and he has done exceedingly well in heightening the mood of the film with blemish less performance.
Tillotama Shome is another actress who can be relied upon without any iota of doubt in any kind of character and her singing ability is an added attraction in this film apart from her acting potential.
Bisha Chaturvedi as Lakshmi had some emotional moments which she has carried out quite well adding more weightage to the narrative.
Seema Pahwa, Khalid Massou, Mehroos Mir as Zaheed, the young friend of Chintu, Reginald L Barnes and Nate Scholz as American soldiers have chipped in with excellent performances elevating Chintu Ka Birthday to newer heights.
Technical aspects
The writer director duo Devanshu Kumar and Satyanshu Singh are brilliant in writing an awe inspiring story and equally succeeded in efficiently transforming it into an immaculately woven drama with a gripping screenplay that keeps viewer engaged all through the film.The icing on the cake is the cinematography of Siddharth Diwan who has done a commendable job despite many constraints as the film was “shot in a closed and compact looking house with bare minimum space to manoeuvre”. But the end result is nothing short of a stunner.
The music composition by another highly competent duo Naren Chadavarkar and Benedict Taylor who are presently riding the success wave of Paatal Lok is amazing with sounds of explosions creating the much needed impact.
Verdict
Every child dreams of cutting a cake on his or her birthday. So don’t lose heart if there is no cake available due to one reason or the other. Its positivity that makes all the difference and what may come, the positivity ensures that dreams are fulfilled and goals are achieved.
Chintu Ka Birthday is an impressive effort in positive direction with emphasis on relations and how to keep children or for that matter everyone around happy by changing even the hearts that exude negativity.
A must watch for every parent and all children who don’t want to miss cake on their birthday. Only complaint is repetition of some cuss words which should have been beeped so that all family members irrespective of age can watch and enjoy this thought provoking entertainer.
