BROTHERS IN CHARMS

The story of three friends over decade. Yes, you have heard that one before, but Kai Po Che has a charm all its own.

RATING: 7.5/10

QUICK TAKE: Abhishek Kapoor elicits some great performances from an unheralded cast and packages it slickly into an enthralling and endearing two hours

When I first read ‘The Three Mistakes of My Life’ I had this nagging feeling that this was a story written with a film in mind. While to be fair to Chetan Bhagat he may not have consciously done so, there was that subconsciously Bollywoodish template to this story of three friends from Ahmedabad and their world of dreams and ambitions tied together by a common thread – the national obsession of cricket.

Bhagat would have been delighted that the job of adapting it to the big screen in the form of ‘Kai Po Che’ fell to Abhishek Kapoor, he who already has showcased the idea of male bonding over a shared obsession very convincingly and classily in ‘Rock On!!’. While thematically similar, the stories differ a lot in their setting and tone – Rock On was an urbane tale; Kai Po Che is kept firmly rooted to the bylanes of Ahmedabad. The adaption of Bhagat’s book (Bhagat himself was part of the team that wrote the script along with Kapoor, Pubali Chaudhuri and Supratik Sen) does away with the more elaborate settings in the book and anchors the story in Ahmedabad and while superbly using the narrative drive and tension that both cricket and the two seismic events in Gujarat (one, rather literally seismic – the quake of 2001 and the other being the Godhra train burning incident and the subsequent riots) provide in Bhagat’s story actually goes ahead and enhances it like only the visual grammar of a film can.

The film pays a lot of attention to subtlety and there are scenes that quietly move the narrative arc forward with things that are happening in the background almost unnoticed – a scene within a scene, if you will – yet having a big impact on the story later. Take for example, when Omi (Amit Sadh), Ishaan (Suahant Singh Rajput) and Govind (Raj Kumar Yadav) go to visit the house of 10 year old Ali, a cricket talent Ishaan  spotted on the playground and wants to coach, Omi is clearly uncomfortable having the Roohafza he is offered. But you’d have to look closely because this is happening as Ishaan tries to convince Ali’s dad to send his son under his tutelage.

The story opens with a now familiar style (if you have seen 3 Idiots and Rock On) of showing the friends in the present day and then quickly cutting off to a flashback to tell the tale of how they got here. Govind is an ambitious young business minded man who wants to open a sporting goods store and also use it to facilitate a cricket coaching academy that his childhood friend Ishaan (who has been a champion district level cricketer but gets constantly bickered at by his father who wants him to do something worthwhile) wants to open. They approach Ishaan’s dad for some seed money, but being rejected finally secure some funding and a location for the shop and academy from Omi’s uncle who is the part of a political party. But their dreams are soon thrust into disarray as first the quake strikes and then the riots. To make matters worse, Govind falls in love with Ishaan’s sister Vidya (Amrita Puri).

Of the three friends, who seem to share some genuine moments on screen (every little gesture and non verbal cue makes a difference and that makes Kai Po Che such a refreshing watch), Sushant’s performance is the standout and the breakthrough – embodying every inch the all heart character that Ishaan is. For those of you who have seen him in the Television soap operas, there’s no way you’ve never wondered that this boy deserves a bigger screen. You will find yourself rooting for him in no time as you are warmly engulfed by the lovely music and carefully constructed scenes.

But the greatest triumph of Kai Po Che is how it masterfully yet understatedly uses cricket as a narrative weapon. The epic India-Australia test at Eden Gardens in 2001 (yes THAT test where VVS got 281) features at a crucial juncture not as an aside to the narrative but thoroughly enmeshed in it. Even the club and the street games are beautifully rendered highlighting how rarely filmmakers in India have ignored the life the game brings to every story an Indian has to tell, too often they fall into the trap of using it just as an accessory.

The earnestness of the cast and the honesty of the film in not trying to be too ambitious or complex makes Kai Po Che work superbly even though broadly speaking it is a story you have kind of seen earlier. You can largely thank Abhishek Kapoor’s deft direction and the chemistry among the cast for that.