In the sense that both movies deal with young children and their life at school, the comparisons between TZP and Stanley are expected for Gupte. However, the core difference between the two movies lies in the way it deals with its issues; where TZP made no bones about dealing with the subject of dyslexia, Stanley , which also speaks of a dark home truth of babyhood in the country, doesn't reveal its central point until the very end of the movie.
An issue based movie swathed in a rather light hearted but instantly connectable story, Stanley Ka Dabba revolves around a young school going child named Stanley and his life at school. While he is an hugely creative and engaging child, who enjoys spinning yarns for his many friends at school, he seems to be packing a rather bleak secret about his home life, manifested primarily in the fact that while all his classmates get lunchboxes daily, Stanley, without a dabba, chooses to go hungry, or tanks up on water instead.
While his class teacher, Ms.Rosy dotes on him, Stanley shares something of an adversarial relationship with his Hindi teacher Babubhai Varma, or Khadoos, as the kids choose to call him. Khadoos, who himself is in the habit of eating from other people's tiffins, hates Stanley for coming without one, and is especially angry when the boy is offered food by his friends. When he makes a regular thing out of eating greedily the food that Stanley 's friends get, the children, led by Stanley , lead him on a wild goose chase around the school for lunch. When he at last catches up to them, Khadoos angrily declares to Stanley that dabba nahin, toh school nahin and the young boy turns truant, until one day, he finally finds a real outlet for his creativity manages to get to school, Stanley Ka Dabba, even as he fights an uphill battle to maintain and save his childhood.
Stanley is a movie made by its performances. While it would be easy to say that Gupte deals in stereotypes when it comes to the teachers, with likes of the loving Catholic class teacher, the harsh South Indian science teacher and the detested Hindi teacher, one can tell from experience that Amol's characters are sketched true to life. As Ms.Rosy, Divya Dutta is faultlessly cast, while theatre artiste Divya Jagdale is superb as the strict and unfriendly Mrs.Iyer. Director Gupte himself takes the cake though. Having cast himself as Khadoos, Amol slips into the very skin of the character and delivers a brilliant act.
Gupte's young son Partho, who stars in the movie as Stanley , delivers what could be one of the most faultless performances to come out of Hindi cinema in ages. Played with unbelievable innocence and an innate strength of spirit, there isn't a moment in the movie where Partho's Stanley seems artificial, or indeed, even acting. The ten year old's performance seems to change the definition of what a child actor's scope of talent should be, and raises the bar for all else to come.
Partho is giftedly supported by his many young friends and co actors in the film, all of whom is just as natural as the lead, and deserve kudos for their performances. The fact that the whole movie is the result of a series of acting workshops by Amol, coupled with the idea that these children worked on the movie without missing a day of school, means Gupte deserves supreme credit here. Simply put, the man seems to have special connect with children, being able to get the best out of them on screen, and being able to capture the innocence of childhood in an extraordinarily natural way.
Still, there are a few areas where Amol needs to brush up as well, mainly in the way he handles some parts of his tale. While there are some points in the first half where the film seems to be moving a bit too slow for comfort, in the second half, Khadoos' change of heart comes in a rather immature manner, one that becomes hard to accept. Still, the story is redeemed by the spirit of Stanley that runs through it, the spirit of childhood that you can't help but love and admire for the way it sees adversity in the face and keeps smiling and carrying on.
Stanley Ka Dabba, at last, is a splendid effort from a first time director. As the architect of the movie, writer, director, producer Amole Gupte deserves kudos, as does Amol Gole for his nuanced cinematography and Gupte's wife Deepa Bhatia for her smart editing.
Hitesh Sonik's music, with tracks like life bahot simple hai and nanhi si jaan, add a new dimension to the movie.
Overall, it is really worthy to watch with your children and live with your own childhood.
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