Starring: Bhavin Rabari, Richa Meena, Bhavesh Shrimali, Dipen Raval
Distributor: Rialto Distribution
Runtime: 115 mins. Reviewed in Sep 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Gujrat, 2010. Young Samay is fascinated by the movies – the light, projectors. He sneaks into screenings, defies his strict father and follows his dream to make movies.
India loves movies. And India probably has the largest film industry in the world. This is pleasing story is a kind of love-letter-movie to Indian cinema and beyond. In fact, several directors are mentioned in the opening credits and, there is an admiring long litany at the end that names and pays tribute to a wide range of directors.
The film is set in 2010, in a small town in Gujrat, which has its own cinema – the Galaxy. So many patrons queue to see its film stock on the huge 35mm projector that the cinema often has to put up the ‘House Full’ sign.
This is a story of a young boy, Samay (Rabari), who discovers a love for cinema. He is delighted with light, and wants to study light and make movies. The film’s writer-director, Pan Nalin, is much older than Samay in 2010 but the story is evocative of his childhood and his fascination that led to his becoming a director.
The young Rabari is one of those child actors who commands our full attention. We are immersed in his eager face, his intense eyes, his delight in the movies, his capacity for friendship with the local boys, and, especially, with Fazal (Shrimali), the Galaxy’s projectionist. As we ourselves gaze at the close-ups of Samay’s delighted face, rapt in the films, we might wonder what we would have looked like had anybody taking photos of ourselves when young, delighted with watching the films. Moviegoers (and, especially, reviewers) can readily share Samay’s wonder.
But, the drama is not plain sailing. Samay’s father takes him to a film (a religious one, hoping he will get over it). He is a proud Brahmin and does not want his son involved in cinema. But with this introduction, Samay always wants to be at the movies. He sneaks in, is ousted by the managers, befriended by the projectionist (and sharing the wonderful lunches his mother prepares – and food fans will appreciate the many lunch preparation sequences). And Samay, whose job it is to sell cups of tea to the passing train passengers, his father having a stall at the station, builds his own mini projector to show cans of films which he purloins to his friends, then getting them to create their own sound effects as they watch.
But, it is 2010 and there is a dramatic change we might not have anticipated. Projectors and 35mm film becomes obsolete as the digital age dawns. The projectionist has no English to read the player instructions and is fired. And the sympathetic local teacher has advised Samay that to get anywhere he needs to learn English.
There is an important sequence where Samay follows the trucks with the old projectors and cartons of film, discovering a factory where they are recycled, the projector turning into cutlery, the celluloid turning into brightly coloured bangles.
There is great pathos as the film comes to an end, the decision his father (who had been fond of caning his disobedient son), the farewell to his mother and sister, to his friends, but getting the projectionist a new job working at the station, and venturing off to the city and to a career.
Who would not enjoy this pleasing film?
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