Summer Special

We may be big Akshay Kumar and Robert Downey Jr fans but even the most die-hard Hollywood-Bollywood aficionado will agree that Housefull and Ironman 2 isn’t exactly stuff you would treat your toddlers to. One is revels in bawdy (read homoerotic) humour while the other is way too violent for kiddie-viewing. This is why,this week’s Friday releases should prove to be a blessing for harried mums and dads who have their hands full with kids on vacation.

The first of the releases is Priyadarshan’s Bumm Bumm Bole which stars the Taare Zameen Par wonderkid,Darsheel Safary. It’s an “acknowledged” remake of Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s 1997 classic,Children of Heaven. It’s a heartwarming tale about a Iranian family battling poverty. Darsheel plays to role of the eldest son of the family who shares his PT shoes with his younger sister (an adorable moppet who is making a debut in the film). When one of them loses a part of the pair they are confronted with the heartbreaking problem of not attending school. How they manage to solve the problem is what the film is all about.

While Majid Majidi’s film is all about understated poignancy,Pridarshan is not really known for being subtle. How he manages to translate the Iranian film’s sensibilities into an Indian context should make for an interesting watch. Moreover,Darsheel fans will be eager to find out if Taare Zameen Par was actually a flash in the pan.

Though the animated feature film Bal Hanuman 2 doesn’t promise to be a big leap in Indian filmmaking,it sure will find its audience in the summer vacation period. Anurag Kashyap’s brush the Hanuman franchise proved to be quite the disaster. His Hanuman f was full of cocky one-liners which no one really understood. The shoddy computer graphics didn’t help either. Hopefully,this Hanuman flick will prove to be a more wholesome cinematic experience for entertainment-starved toddlers.