Small pleasures!

Nanhe Jaisalmer
Direction: Samir Karnik
Cast: Bobby Deol, Dwij Yadav
Rating: *½

All you fans out there rejoice. If you dream long and hard enough and use some imagination not only will you be able to meet your idol, you could actually bond with him. Or so promises ‘Nanhe Jaisalmer’, directed by Samir Karnik.

The 11-year-old guide in Jaisalmer, Nanhe (Dwij Yadav, sweet but irritatingly shrill) has an obsession for Bobby Deol of all the actors. He calls him ‘dost’ courtesy the fact that seven years ago, on a shooting visit to Jaisalmer, there was a photograph taken of Bobby holding Nanhe. His room is plastered with pictures of Bobby taken from newspapers and magazines and he writes letters to him on a daily basis.

He dreams of Bobby all the time, including Bobby performing while he is part of the audience. When his dreams and imagination actually materialise, he is beyond happiness. During Bobby’s shooting schedule in Jaisalmer, they bond with each other and sing songs too. That the songs sound like they were written for a romantic interlude is another matter altogether.

Along the way the story takes in a few causes: literacy, adult and otherwise, accepting friends as they are and standing up to bullies. But this is all peripheral, it’s really about Bobby and Nanhe and their abiding friendship.

Strangely, towards the end when there are some lessons to be learnt by Nanhe, there is a slow and agonising recap of the highlights of the story. Why the audience needs to be subjected to it too is inexplicable. More perplexing is how Bobby stays exactly the same in looks with the same golden streaked hair while Nanhe grows from the age of four to 21.

This could have been about aspiration, inspiration and ambition, instead it is plain maudlin.

indumirani@gmail.com