This movie called: Chillar Party

Innocence is a treasured virtue. It implies the presence of soul in the living being.  In today’s times, when the paucity of such virtues (or maybe just ‘virtue’) hits us right in the face, we turn to celluloid to keep us alive. This Friday, barring the other fare, this movie called Chillar Party was released, which attempts to put some soul, some innocence into the paradox, ’good Bollywood movie’. Yes, this piece of cinema is based on kids, but it hollers back a lesson or two to the elders, too.

Chillar Party is a good-at-heart film that resembles a smile. It features a bunch of zesty kids who befriend a street urchin and his dog, as he works as a car cleaner in their colony. However, all is not well when a minister decides to have the ‘stray’ dog laid down, in order to keep a check on the growing number of vagrant dogs in the city(read: vote bank politics). The gang then eventually tries their best to save the dog from being clamped away, right from uniting all the colony members to vote in favour, upto gaining the support of the media; this culminates into the climax of the movie wherein lies a message for every social element.

The group of kids stands out as the main star cast who deliver engaging performances throughout the movie. A meticulously sewn script with crisp and snappy dialogues is the actual show stealer here. Film schools stress on the fact that the first ten minutes of a movie must be enchanting enough to have the viewer connect to the story; Chillar Party achieves much more than that. By the end of the first half, you are in splits for the most of it. Surprisingly, not the no-brainer, overtly slapstick kind of humour! The second half tends to be a bit inspiring, ergo a bit too overdramatic. A few scenes neatly edited, would have done the trick. Good production qualities are evident and so is the cinematography for depicting plain urban locales. The supporting cast, too, provide a tight performance, thus, contributing to this ‘kiddie’ movie.

All in all, Chillar Party is the cinematic definition of the word, ‘cute’. Comparing it with Taarein Zameen Par comes as very habitual, but very unnecessary. Definitely worth a watch, it also brings out the fact you can show something cool, without mentioning the words, ‘Tarantino’ or ‘Coppola’.