HAPPY ENDINGS ALL AROUND
Nil Battey Sannata is UP slang for good-for-nothing. The good-for-nothing here is Apeksha, a 15-year-old girl living in Agra. Apu likes Ranbir Kapoor, watching TV and dancing. She’s fiery and funny. She also has a temper. Apu is, as her mother Chanda puts it, a ‘ziddi ghodi’. Apu gets especially furious when Chanda starts talking about math. Apu can’t grasp numbers and she refuses to invest her energy in deciphering them. But Chanda isn’t as willing to succumb to their circumstances. With great resilience and courage, this single mother proves that math, poverty, lack of opportunity — all obstacles — can eventually be overcome if you work hard enough. The film’s emotional centre is the relationship between mother and daughter. They are friends but also foes who compete and fight bitterly. I also enjoyed watching the quietly hilarious Pankaj Tripathi as the principal of the school where both mother and daughter enroll. Cinematographer Gavemic U Ary skilfully captures the beauty of Agra. The supporting characters are also nicely cast — Ratna Pathak Shah plays Chanda’s advisor, guide and boss. But despite its many strengths, Nil Battey Sannata stumbles because the story is too slim. Even at 100 minutes, the film feels stretched. In the second half especially, it feels like we are treading the same ground. There are big problems but kindly, helpful people appear and solve them. The local collector is such a decent man that he has tea with Chanda and patiently answers all her questions. Ashwiny keeps the tone resolutely optimistic and inspirational. Yes there is grief, but it never gets grim. I never felt overly concerned for Chanda and Apu because I knew that, eventually, the knots would unravel. So Nil Battey Sannata comes off as slight in places but it leaves you with a sense of hope. And really, what is the downside of that?