Business Rating: 0.5 star
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Star cast: Taher Sutterwala, Sarika, Atul Kulkarni, Rajesh Khattar, Chinmay Kambli.
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What’s Bad: The second half; the music.
Verdict: Kaccha Limboo will go unnoticed at the ticket windows.
Loo break: Anytime in the second half.
Watch or Not? For the performances.
Sahara One Motion Pictures and Park Bench Motion Pictures’ Kaccha Limboo is about a young boy, Shambhu (Taher Sutterwala), who has very few friends in school and who also doesn’t get along too well with his stepfather, Abhay Shrivastav (Atul Kulkarni), in spite of the latter’s best efforts to connect well with him. Slowly, he also starts resenting the fact that his mother, Kanchan Sanghvi (Sarika), married Abhay.
In school, there’s a group of boys, which constantly makes fun of Shambhu. One day, Shambhu runs away from school after being fired by his principal, Father Adolf (Rajesh Khattar). He doesn’t return home too. Even as his parents are worried for him, Shambhu befriends the very kids who’ve stolen his bicycle. He stays for a few days with Vitthal (Chinmay Kambli), the head of the kid group, and even shows remarkable presence of mind and bravery when he jumps into the river from a running train to save Vitthal who has leapt out to catch a flying currency note.
The film traces adolescent Shambhu’s journey, his insecurities in life, his crush on a girl, Vineeta Kapadia (Simran Jehani), his relationship with his parents, etc.
The screenplay, penned by Sagar Ballary, Cyrus Khambatta and Arpita Chatterjee, proceeds well for the first around 45 minutes after which it goes haywire. The second half of the film gets lost once the main protagonist, Shambhu, leaves the school and runs away from home. The track in which he befriends the Koli kids looks too contrived and does not quite match the earlier part of the drama. Also, the writers seem to have shot in excess because the film looks like it has been edited haphazardly. For instance, the portion in which Shambhu comes to school on his new bicycle looks abrupt. Also, the tension between Shambhu and his stepfather has not been explained too well till quite late in the film. In fact, it is not even clear till quite late that Abhay is Shambhu’s stepfather. Another example: school- teacher Mary Rodrigues (Irawati Harshe Mayadev) is shown leaving the school entertainment programme in a huff for no apparent reason. Reference to this is indirectly made much later when the school kids talk about her affair with someone, which, again, is not very clear.
On the plus side, the screenplay is extremely realistic and presents in a very natural manner the way the school kids behave. The language they speak, the way they fight and quarrel, their insecurities, all of these have been shown brilliantly. Credit for this would have to be given not just to the screenplay writers but also to the dialogue writers viz. Jyoti Kapoor, Manaswini L.R. and Sagar Ballary.
Taher Sutterwala does a wonderful job as the main protagonist. He is excellent and natural to the core. Sarika also puts in a superb and very natural performance and is a delight to watch. Atul Kulkarni lives his role and is beautifully restrained. Chinmay Kambli stands his own as Vitthal. His dialogue delivery is excellent. Irawati Harshe Mayadev does a very fine job. Bhairavi Goswami is good in the role of teacher Lily Fernandes. As principal Father Adolf, Rajesh Khattar performs well. Simran Jehani leaves a mark in the role of Vineeta Kapadia.Vinay Pathak and Rukhsar act well in special appearances. Shaheer Vitthal Umap, Neha Sawant, Rachna Shah, Eddie Phadke, Anil Kumar (as teacher Tripathi), Manaswini L.R. (as Geography teacher), Armaan Malik (as student Armaan), Ronith Ramesh (as Amit), Shrikanth Ravishankar (as Shrikanth), Shyam Gopal Balakrishna (as Hari), Kush Ganatra (as Kush), Viren Bakhru (as Viren), Harman Wadhwa (as Pritpal), Eram Sayed (as Shreya), Diksha Balodia (as Ginny), Nyma Merchant (as Nyma), Rusina Karia (as Suri), Ashay Kambli (as Atish), Karan Bhanushali (as Karan), Sanil Gosavi (as Sanil), Glendon Vaughn Seymor (as Vaughn), Nimesh Jain (as Jai), Hasmukh (as Hasu), Chetan Trivedi (as Chetan), Shanay Shah (as Shanay), Pratik Bhidwadkar (as Barkya), Pratik Dalvi (as More), Alex Nadar (as Tyson), Deven Kharpe (as Govindo), Indira Iyer (as Bhanumati), Somnath Tadwalkar (as Hari), Sushma Bakshi (as Mangala), Baboosh (as Bheem), Kavita Amle (as Saku), Sandeep Mane (as Chandu), Heerav Nimai (as Chhotu), Kaushal Raut (as Rani) and the others lend adequate support.
Sagar Ballary’s direction is good. He has extracted very fine performances from his cast members. However, his narration suffers once the script goes haywire. Amardeep Nijjer’s music is functional and okay. Lyrics are so-so. Parixit Warrier’s camerawork is alright. Editing (Suresh Pai) could’ve been sharper but it is quite nice. Production design by Sukant Panigrahy and art direction by Helen Jones are appropriate. Sham Kaushal’s action scenes are very real.
The Last Word
On the whole, Kaccha Limboo is good but only in parts. It loses track midway after which it is just not able to come back on track. At the box-office, it will not be able to make any mark whatsoever.
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