Chillar Party – Small Film, Huge Heart & Talent

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Directors: Vikas Bahl, Nitesh Tiwari

Actors: Irrfan Khan, Sanath Menon, Naman Jain, Rohan Grover, Aarav Khanna, Vishesh Tiwari, Chinmai Chandranshuh, Vedant Desai, Divji Handa, Sherya Sharma

Rating: 4 out of 5

At a point in American history, dogs and blacks were not allowed in public places. During the British occupation of China, it was ‘dogs and Chinese’ while at the first Mumbai marathon the rule was against dogs and wheelchairs. A dog, overtime in history, has thus become a metaphor for seclusion, for denying someone their fundamental rights.

Chillar Party uses this metaphor in a brilliant, but hilariously entertaining manner to make a statement against those who seclude, be it Shiv Sena in Mumbai, fanatic Hindus who want Muslims out of India, or upper class Hindus who refuse lower caste people their basic rights etc. That it does so while making you laugh is one of its greatest strengths.

After a street kid Phatka (Irrfan Khan) and his stray dog Bhidu begins cleaning cars in a rich locality, a gang of rich, school going kids nick-named ‘Chillar Party’ first try to fend him off using various trick. However, when they realize the full extent of the poor kids and his dogs situation, they become great buddies. On a trip to the locality, a minister’s PA tries to shoo off Phatka, as he is a street kid but his attempt is thwarted by the ferocious Bhidu.

Insulted, the minister vows revenge and passes a law to ban all street dogs from Mumbai. Realizing that the dog was right in doing what he did, the kids decide to take up the challenge to ensure that the dog continues to stays in their locality. The adults, however, are apathetic to their ‘small’ cause. The kids realize they need to do something drastic and they resort to some unconventional activism. But the minister is in no mood to relent and he ups the pressure on the locality to now evict even the slum kid along with his dog. Would the powerless kids, whom even their parents don’t listen to, manage to take on the high and mighty minister?

Salman Khan, literally flexing his muscle to support this small, beautiful film and for once his toplessness is worth the cause.  

Chillar Party, in essence, is a children’s film. But those who can read between the lines and see between pictures know that the most brilliant, imaginative and metaphorical literature and cinema in the world, are for kids. Thus in literature you have your ‘The Prince’ and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ among many others, in cinema you have the seemingly ‘children’s’ films of Iranian auteurs which though simple and innocent at the surface, attacks an unjust system. Chillar Party is a welcome addition to these greats of world cinema. And in a nation like India with the world’s second largest children population, that barely makes any good films for them, this is more than a welcome film.

Yet, what does a children’s film need to have to be good. Simple story, good metaphor, oodles of cuteness and innocence, fun and humour and a band of actors to carry it all off. If you have these, any other drawbacks can be excused. And though Chillar Party has its drawbacks, these elements handled with simplicity and flair, makes it a thrilling experience.

The film is filled with observations and idiosyncrasies that will leave you laughing your guts out. Every kid in the film has acted with such restrained understatement that they give your popular stars a run for their hammed money. And yet beyond all these beautifully working elements, it is the metaphor of the dog that takes the prize.

Unlike nature, the world of humans is full of seclusion. Thus a Bal Thackeray in the 60s wants the South Indians, in the 90s the Muslims, and now the North Indians out of Mumbai. Fanatic Hindus want Muslims out of India. The Americans wanted blacks out of America. The Australians want Indians out. The Sri Lankans want the Tamils out. The ‘normal’ able bodied people don’t want to see the handicapped amidst them. The list is literally endless. But as the film so valiantly, sincerely and emotionally argues, what is needed in every sphere is not mere toleration, but the understanding of the underdog that can lead to their full inclusion and acceptance in society, no matter how different they seem from us.

Chillar Party is filled with allegorical moments that hint at how the poor, the disenfranchised, the adivasi, the handicapped, the minority survive. When the rich kids take away his cleaning cloth, Phatka has no qualms about washing cars with his only tshirt. The rich consider poor to be pests and want them out, but the poor strive and ironically serve the same rich. Some, pushed to the edge, take up arms against mighty odds, like in the tribal belts of India where the Naxalite problem is nothing but the fight of the disenfranchised against a corrupt system that has totally neglected them forever.

The film is a treasure trove of metaphors. While the rich people live in big homes and have big cars, it is washed by a kid they do not care about who lives in an old, dilapidated car. While their kids play with remote controlled cars, the poor boy does not even have anything to protect himself from the rain. Yet, when the slum kid brings out these differences, he ends up becoming a counselor to the rich kids who realize how fortunate they are, in comparison to him. This is done so gently and subtly in the film, that unlike ‘Stanley Ka Dabba’ where the end seems cooked up, it blends in perfectly.

The film also becomes a crash-course in activism for urban, unconcerned audiences. And it is the kids and their innocence that show the way. “There's a point where anyone can become an activist. You see something so wrong, you have to act. Even if it means the end of you," says a character in the Mel Gibson starrer 'Edge of Darkness. Sadly, adults have become so unmoved by so many wrongs around them, that forget acting on it, they don’t even notice it. That it is the kids who unlike their parents are not driven by any ulterior movies, notice one wrong, and despite the insurmountable odds decide to fight for something they believe is right, is a statement on all non-kids.

That the kids, to right a little wrong, take to the streets in a very democratic, Gandhian ways, can perhaps pave the way for adults to learn lessons to do the same, to get more conscious and perhaps concerned about the world around and the plight of voiceless all around them. They could do well to remember what one kid says, “when you are doing something right, even if you get beaten a bit, it’s okay.”

The film is nuanced, hilarious, gentle and observational in its humour, and does not get self-conscious in making a statement and commentary against the ills of the society. And though like any children’s film it is sweet in its temperament, its sweetness is that of a sugar coating over a bitter pill. Thankfully, the film is emotional and not overtly logical in its argument, something that art is supposed to be and do.

Besides saluting the creative genius of writer-director Vikas Bahl and Nitesh Tiwari, one has to bow to UTV and Salman Khan, for flexing their muscles (literally for Salman Khan) for a film that maybe small, but that as cinema goes, is much more mature than 99% films ever made in the country. And that, you’ll reckon, is no ‘small’ achievement. 

The kids march to save the dog ‘Bhidu’. Who is Bhidu? Bhidu is your poor slum dweller, the tribal of India, the handicapped, the dalits, the minorities, the girl child in a masculine home, the Muslim in a Hindu India, the Indian in Australia. Listen to the kids and please, for your own sakes, Save Bhidu.