Review: Killa

One Of The Finest Films On Childhood

4 and 1/2 stars

Mini Review:

I want to adopt Bandya, Egghead, Prince, Omkar and Chinu. I envy their friendship, I wished my mom were more like Chinu's, I want to now go visit all the places Chinu and his friends went, I am in love with cinema again!

Main Review:

You watch Bollywood potboilers where the hero kicks twenty chaps twice his size and romance heroines half their age. You are numbed by multi-million dollar Hollywood summer extravaganza where the special effects dazzle your eyes... 

But then once on a rare blue moon, comes a movie that puts everything that you loved about the flickering pictures in a darkened room, and you fall in love with the play of light once again. These are movies that make popcorn redundant, make you feel for every character, and before you know it, you begin to believe in the magic of the movies again.

Good boy Chinu moves to this picturesque seaside town and saves a puppy from the 'chandaal chowkdi' kids who will become his friends... Sitting in the darkened theater with a friend I realised that one has outgrown so many friends - some moved away, some you outgrew, some friendships did not last - but the ones you remember clearly, and with fondness that you think is an emotion long forgotten.

Your senses are so used to the crash, boom, bang of the movies you are used to seeing, the langorous pace of the story makes you wonder, 'Is this movie going anywhere? Is the misery of the mom going to slip out of the screen and permeate your being?' And that's when Bandya (Parth Bhalerao, the smart alecky lad from Bhootnath Returns) shows up on screen cursing merrily, and saves the movie.

And if you are a grown up and wonder how you got there, you will call your mom and dad and tell them to watch this movie, because it is a subtle pointing out how you felt when they were too busy to sit down and ask you what was wrong, and if they did, you were tongue tied to express yourself. This movie is that wonderful.

The locations are so delicious, you want to take that next vacation to that Killa (the fort), sit down and contemplate the meaning of life on the same beach that Chinu sits, you want to visit the same lighthouse, and fall in love again and hope it is as innocent and pure as Egghead's crush.

Why not give five stars then? The film leaves a couple of threads loose. It would mean offering spoilers, but I wondered why the dog just disappears from the scene. Boy and his dog are powerful images. Plus the subtitles are just a little lazy.

For rekindling your childhood memories, watch Killa. I emerged richer from simply watching the smile on Chinmay's face at the very end.