Dir: Amole Gupte Cast: Amole Gupte, Partho, Divya Dutta, Divya Jagdale, Raj Zutshi
Stanley Ka Dabba
U; Comedy
Dir: Amole Gupte
Cast: Amole Gupte, Partho, Divya Dutta, Divya Jagdale,
Raj Zutshi
Rating: ***1/2
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When you see the delightful animated opening credits of this film, you are kind of sure of a pleasant experience ahead. Stanley (played by Partho, Amole's son) is refreshing and real, unlike most of the cocky over smart child stars of Bollywood. You warm up to him in the first scene itself when he narrates the story of an imaginary fight he was involved in, to his ever-attentive sweet English teacher (played efficiently by Divya Dutta). 
The stark difference between the greed of an adult, Hindi teacher Babu Varma (played by Amole) and the self-respect of a child, Stanley is subtly dealt with but manages to get to your gut. The creepy Hindi teacher, not only keeps a hawk's eye on the children's tiffin boxes and devours most of it, he also tries covering his own weaknesses and insecurities, by constantly berating Stanley.u00a0
The unimaginative science teacher (played brilliantly by Divya Jagdale) reminds you of some people in your childhood, who seemed afraid of their own limitations and tried hard to thwart a child's flights of fancy. What works for Stanley Ka Dabba is its stellar cast. Mainly the children, led by the extremely affable Partho, a rich but sensitive Aman Mehra (played by Numan Sheikh), Saisharan Shetty, Abhishek Reddy and others. My personal favourite is Walter D'souza, who while fighting for justice for his friend, Stanley in his own little capacity, shows a tremendous strength of character.
Amole Gupte's directorial debut is brilliant, his narrative is easy and uncomplicated and the best thing is, he allows the children to be themselves, without forcing an adult's way on them. There are some scenes that stay with you, like the one where the English teacher grudgingly offers a piece of cake to Varma, after he manages to drive Stanley out of the school.
What doesn't work is that while it is touted as a children's movie, it is more addressing to the adults. While child labour is a pressing and immediate issue, a child need not be burdened with such an issue, while watching a film made for him or her. Even if they want to, they can't do anything about it. Why can't a children's movie be just that, without tagging a social issue along with it?
The music is soothing and a special mention of Shankar Mahadevan's Nikal Padi must be made. However, in all a touching experience and thankfully Gupte loves and understands children enough to want to make such movies for them. Looking at the bleak situation children's movies are in, anything even close to Stanley Ka Dabba is welcome.
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