Love in the time of anti-romeo squads
there. The film-within-a-film setup has its charm — Fazal is shooting his dream project in the bylanes of Allahabad with money borrowed from his mother and often supplemented by helping weak students cheat.
That is how he meets his girl, a BA dropout who needs to graduate so her father (Ashutosh Rana) can marry her to the educated boy of his choice. Love blossoms, but this is an Uttar Pradesh of anti-romeo squads and caste lines etched in stone.
Early in the film, a stonefaced Sikander Kher cas- trates a boy for falling in love with a girl from another caste. To Annu, Mumbai is the city of his dreams, a safe haven from the patriarchal stronghold of Allahabad. The single-screen Milan Talkies represents Bollywood; here, he and Maithili romance in the flickering lights, helped by a projectionist (Sanjay Mishra) who acts as their personal Cupid.
Annu does finally reach Mumbai, but after bloodshed and without the woman he loves.
Dhulia is in fine form — in addition to directing and playing Annu’s father, he also co-wrote the film. As a man-child whose own Bollywood dreams came to naught, he is a delight.
However, it is in the way he captures the essence of smalltown India, especially Allahabad — where he is from, incidentally — that he truly wins.
He is ably supported by the cast — Fazal, Srinath, Ashutosh and Sanjay are particularly delightful.
There are a few bumps in the road though, mainly the film’s length and entirely forgettable music.