Chhello Show: An Elegiac Prayer

 

Chhello Show: An Elegiac Prayer

(Time to read: 3 mins)

Introduction

Do you watch films? If yes, read on. Recently, I watched Chhello Show on Netflix. This blog is about why I liked the film. I’m not a film critic. Don’t read if you’re looking for expert comments.

Why I liked the film?

It is a heartrending, yet a heartwarming film; often depressing, yet uplifting.

Chhello Show

Chhello Show, a Gujarati film by Pan Nalin, and titled The Last Show in English, is India’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2023 Oscars.   If it wins the award, it will be well deserved. If it doesn’t, no matter. It is a film that will still be watched and appreciated all over the world.

Plot

A simple story about a young boy’s irrepressible passion for films, and the death of the outdated technology of film projection.

The story is set in Kathiawad, and has the unmistakable colour and flavour of Gujarat. Gandhi is acknowledged, in passing, as a Kathiawadi, and even the Gir lions are in a frame.

Samay, the protagonist, is the son of a tea-stall owner at Chalala, a small railway station.  The family ekes out a meagre living from the tea stall. Samay takes the wire-mesh tray with small glasses and dishes out tea for the passengers before the train leaves- a small window of opportunity, like the small aperture in the Projector Room.

Theme

Two themes are concurrent:  

(1) Samay’s love for films and his infatuation with the technology of film projection. ‘Project Cinema’ was challenging, and needed focussed work, dedication, and sacrifices, and Samay and his team rose to the challenge. They set up their own ‘cinema hall’ in a dilapidated building in a ghost village, complete with a jugaad projector, a screen made out of old gunny bags, and  the soundtrack ‘created’ by the children. The screening of the film in the ghost village symbolises undying hope. Samay and his friends-cum-collaborators are tenacious. They think nothing of stealing the film rolls. With sheer grit, perseverance, and jugaad, they screened a film which was greeted with loud squeals of sheer joy from the kids and cheered by thrilled adults, including Samay’s mother.

(2) The death of the old world: the ghost village was already dead; the old technology for screening films became obsolete and was junked; the desolation and death of Chalala station where trains no longer halted; the imminent closure of the tea-stall and a bleak future for the family sustaining on the little income from the stall.

Characters

The adult actors are theatre artists, and the six children, including Samay (Bhavin Rabari), are fresh faces with no previous theatre experience. These adorable child actors bring spontaneity and freshness to the film. Samay’s parents, and Fazal, the Projector Operator, also perform with panache.

Memorable scenes

·       Samay had sneaked into the theatre without a ticket and is thrown out,

·       Samay bartering his lunch box with Fazal to watch films for free from the Projector room,

·       Bonding between Fazal, the mentor, and Samay, the apprentice. Life offers a small window of opportunity!

·       Samay’s stoical silence when caned by his father,

·       The squeals of laughter of children at Samay’s jugaad theatre in the ghost village,

·       Samay in jail,

·       Samay’s father, sitting alone under the prayerful pennant on a little forlorn hillock, staring into a bleak future,

·       Samay’s departure from Chalala, the train slowly chugging away,

Mother's Kitchen

Samay’s mother’s kitchen adds a splash of colour, and the unmistakable whiff of mouthwatering Gujarati cuisine. Against the backdrop of poverty and diminishing opportunities, her kitchen is a solid, stable place of nourishment and hope. She ‘creates’ nutritious, delicious, and colourful dishes daily. She would win hands-down were she in a cookery show!

Avatar

The garbage is recycled at a factory at Rajkot, the steel and iron parts make new products, the film rolls reappear as colourful bangles, a new Avatar. For Samay, these are no ordinary bangles, but the Avatars of Amitabh, Shahrukh, Gurudutt, and others. The film rolls, in their previous life, provided a much cheer to the viewers. Films, even in a ramshackle, dark and dingy theatre, provided an escape, however momentary, from the harsh, blinding, oppressive light of real life. In their new avatar as colourful bangles, they bring joy to thousands of women.

The old film-roll is dead, but not yet. No ending is final. In every ending is a beginning. Life is undying, irrepressible.

End scene

Samay leaves for Baroda with a little money his father had saved over the years for Samay’s higher studies. Go and study the light, he told Samay.  He couldn’t escape the darkness, but hopes his son does.

Samay means Time, and the name is purposely allegorical. Time is unstoppable, and can’t be subjugated (by harsh caning) or confined (jailed). It is in Time’s nature to move forward, to leave behind the past, and look forward to the future. That’s why Samay bids adieu to Chalala, his loving family and friends, and leaves for Baroda, the town beckoning to a better future.

The scene of Samay’s departure from Chalala is heartrending. In the frame are his tearful parents, stunned sister, and distraught friends. A small boy reflects the light from a little mirror as a farewell gesture for Samay. He and the other boys have also been fascinated by the power of light, and the power in their minds and hands to manage and manipulate light for snatching stories out of darkness. Some of them might also step out of Chalala, and go on their own individual adventure.

Samay dreamed and dared to cross the boundary. He had been doing it all along- bunking classes, sneaking into the theatre without a ticket, bartering his meal and going hungry to feed his passion for films, stealing, setting up a theatre in the ghost village. He refused to abandon his passion even when thrashed and jailed.

The boy who sold tea in a little station dared to dream big, and stepped out on his solitary yet spirited adventure with no other resource but his indomitable will, unwavering focus, and the burning zeal to succeed. Not unlike a boy who sold tea in another small station in Gujarat, and went on to become the Prime Minister of the country.

Chhello Show is less an elegy, more a prayer. Hope triumphs over despair and desolation. It is life-affirming and uplifting.

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 Note: 

• Author's profile may be seen at http://amazon.com/author/pkdash
• Books by this author are available on Amazon.in, Kindle eBook, Flipkart, and Notion Press, Chennai.

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