Stanley Ka Dabba : Movie Review

Who does not want to go back to their school days.. when we had best times of our lives. Got punished [face the wall] for mischief in class; Shared our 'dabbas' with bunch of friends; fought over 'area of bench' with bench-mate; drooled over beautiful teacher and get crazy by getting praise [and 'special' toffees] by her. Oh man ! How 'Stanley Ka Dabba' got me nostalgic. Loved the way Amole Gupte has treated this film with the medium of food. [Note: DO NOT watch this movie when u r hungry :) ]

First thing I want to advise is - DO NOT go with TZP in your mind. Do not make comparisons. No, that would be unfair to both movies. TZP was about nurture, care and education system. While SKD is about just a few pages from the life of Stanley [Partho Gupte]- little sweet boy who is famous amongst his class for stories he makes out of nowhere. Favorite of Rosy miss [Divya Dutta in a lovely performance]. And.. not so favorite of Verma sir [Amole Gupte]. Beauty of the movie lies in its simple yet lovely treatment. The creative couple Deepa and Amole has treated it so lightly that it makes you involved in the happenings. You feel like sitting in class, laugh at silly acts of mischiefs by kids, feel Stanley's pain, feel joy of friendship, feel overwhelm in finale [and, what follows after]. Everything is natural. [may be thats because children were not 'forced' to act. Movie was shot in weekends with schedule of maximum 2 hours !] And, the compelling score by Hitesh Sonik is another highlight of the movie.
 
Highly recommended this is. Finest performances. Fantastic execution. Do not treat it as film for kids [as I was told by many - 'why watch a 'kids' movie'?] But trust me, if you miss this- you'll miss 90 minutes of sheer joy, happiness and honest efforts.

Tags : Stanley Ka Dabba, Amole Gupte, Deepa Bhatia, Partho, Abhishek Chaturvedi, Shaikh, Walter, Shiv Narain Shetty, Raj Zutshi, Divya Dutta, Holy Family School, Hitesh Sonik