Who told Rabindranath Tagore is no longer relevant? You have to watch the reinvented version of Kabuliwala to realize Tagore's stories are timeless and holds sway over an audience which is more than 100 years younger than his time. The time in which the movie is set in in 1990's Calcutta where a cinephile Kabuliwala flees from war ridden Afganistan and swoons children with his mobile cinema. He befriends a small girl Minnie, daughter of a fashion photographer Rabi Basu who reminds him of her own daughter. Just like the earlier story he gets embroiled in a murder accusation and goes to Jail. While escaping the prison he comes for one last time to visit that girl but gets imprisoned again at the behest of Rabi Basu. Upon his release finally he becomes demented and Rabi Basu now tries to fly him back to Afganistan. He dies in a plane crash and her daughter, now a film maker in France, comes back to discover Rahamat, the Afgan bioscopewala who made her childhood full of imagination and joy. I don't want to spoil the ending by disclosing the plot entirely, but the credit goes to Deb Medhekar, the director for weaving such a story of love, imagination and life as a whole. Reinventing the story in present days touching on the older strands is a task where the screenplay writers and director excel. Acting skills of Geetanjali Thapa ( Minnie) is noteworthy. Her dilemma, her reluctance, her brazen When actors of Danny's time are engaged in mindless films, Danny Denzongpa chose a meaningful film to come back. Those who are retaining Danny's image as a Bollywood villain, please see this movie to observe a new avatar. Adil Hussain's salt n pepper look is always an winner and he did justice for the little time he spent on screen.
I particularly liked songs written by Gulzar and some deep dialogues in this film. When Minnie encounters her father's supposedly paramour, the attractive Tisca Chopra says " Jibon amai emon kichui dei ni ja Mrityu amar kach theke kere nilo" meaning life has not given me anything that death could take away. This sentence will be etched forever in my mind.
Overall, this is a heart warming everlasting tale of universal feeling of fatherhood which Tagore portrayed. Earlier this story was made into movie twice - once in Bangla in 1957 by Tapan Sinha and another time in Hindi by Hemen Gupta in 1961. Balraj Sahani in the Hindi film and Chabi Biswas in the Bengali film made such a mark that people still remember them. Director Deb Medhekar made this movie a memorable one with Danny not deviating from the high standard of acting.
A clip of bengali film Kabuliwala
A famous song from Kabuliwala, Bollywood version
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