Stanley Ka Dabba

Amole Gupte's directorial debut Stanley Ka Dabba pictures a kid who never brings his dabba (tiffin box) to school, gets attracted to his classmates' tiffins, gets scolded by his "khadoos" Hindi teacher and sometimes just manage to satiate his hunger with tap water. The kid is Stanley. From bruises on face to his incapability of bringing tiffin, he finesses with false reasons for all, cutely wrapped in his juvenile voice. Dressed with unwashed clothes, torn pocket and bag, one really expect a reason for it and a story beyond it. Though somewhere on a predictable note, the story telling promises it in a refreshing way. "Khadoos", the Hindi teacher, played by Amole Gupte himself, has a lust for food which becomes his weakness that deviates him from teaching Hindi in class to discussing the size of tiffin boxes of children.

Stanley's dabba gang has varied characters who marks their presence with genuineness and innocence, from the tiffin rich kid to the true friend. But Stanley is the star in his own way. With his gifted talent, he never fails to cherish his sweet Rosy Miss (Divya Dutta) and also the audience!

In such a simple-straight story telling which is yet beautiful, how does it matter much even if the back cast performances are felt amateurish? Not much, really. With Partho - the star kid, Amole Gupte, Divya Dutt making their presence very real, the film flows gracefully. Also, the art-direction right from the kitchen to the classroom makes the movie look more real. Background score sounds well and also the song picturisation adds flavor to it. Jhoola Jhool in the voice of Hamsika Iyer being my personal favorite.

With not much packed in it's first half, Stanley Ka Dabba offers you a light hearted, not-at-all spicy, healthy treat in its course of less than 2 hours. It brings smiles, tears and not only serves you a delicious entertainment but also a cause to realize! Watch for it!

Stanley Ka Dabba! Have it!

Ratings: 6.5/10

The film as its subtitle says is a small film with a big heart.It is the true family entertainer. A kind of film that school kids should see to find themselves on the screen and grown ups should see for nostalgic feeling of school days.

The film, according to me is a gem because it doesn't try to be extra - ordinary or path breaking. The film remains simple, realistic and naive. The film is just like a new born baby.No lime lights or publicity stunts were done to promote the film and thats why I love it even more.

The director "Amole Gupte" (deserves the respect I have for him) has his own good story to tell which is funny (or witty) but really impulses you in the end when a simple message is conveyed in the most beautiful way!

Beautiful is the word to describe the performances.The kiddo is already a star.Amole Gupte has proved it once again that he is in the same league of Naseeruddin Shah or Irfan Khan, and he has his own place in the heart of Bollywood.

Story is simple yet touchy.Looks as if all the emotions of a school kid are portrayed beautifully on a celluloid.Screenplay is strong and never distracts us from the main track despite of many strong sub plots.

Music is very good and suits the movie. Background score thumps the movie and helps in making it a heartthrob movie.

The film deserves a 5* but it would be a quite heavy tag to carry for a simple and innocent movie.A gracious 4.5* will be suitable.But above all, this film should not be missed at any condition!

I am glad that the movie is not Taare Zameen Par kind of film.Here is no dirty game of snatching credits and above all, no stars try to super- impose over each other ( yes main stream actors like Amole Gupte and Divya Datta are present).

The film will be cherished in my mind for a long time, Thanks Stanley!

Way back while watching François Truffaut's "400 blows" a desire to watch a matured Indian film on a child protagonist cropped in my mind. Thanks to the changing wave of Indian cinema Aamir Khan gave us the brilliant Taare Zameen Par in 2007 which was the creation of Amol Gupte (He was the creative director of the film). In 2011 Amol Gupte came up with heart warming Stanley Ka Dabba which reflected the potential he had showed with the screenplay of TZP. Stanley Ka Dabba starts with a highly zoomed shot of a warm day with a school kid (that's Stanley superbly played by Partho) with bruised face, little shabby yet jubilant walking towards the camera. As he enters the school and changes the calendar followed by a sleepy moment of ecstasy within himself reflects the monotonous schedule of a lonely child who is happy with his own supposed peaceful existence. He is the star kid who is good at everything from books to ball without any air of arrogance. His friends and teachers all love him except Khadoos , an appropriate title given by the 4th standard student to their Hindi teacher Verma Sir (played by Amol Gupte). Verma sir is an unapologetic glutton who pounces on others tiffin (dabba) be it the teachers or students. The cold war between Verma and Stanley starts with later not bringing much awaited Dabba for Verma sir to pounce upon. With a beautiful cat-and-mouse game the student gang of Stanley makes Verma run all around the campus everyday till the group is caught red handed. Without revealing the climax it is the emotional journey without getting too filmy that touches the right chord. With Verma realizing his mistake to the oxymoron brutally sweet climax it keeps the viewer engaged and at the end one leaves the hall pondering on certain aspect of Indian society that needs to be taken care for freedom of more Stanleys in real life.

Amol Gupte made a path breaking debut with Stanley Ka Dabba which tells simple uncomplicated story even though it reflects a complicated story about some harsh Indian reality. To tell his story the writer (again Gupte himself) did a commendable job in creating few characters around which the story revolves and took his sweet time in creating each characters. The teachers are sketched out of reality. Rosi Miss (played beautifully by Divya Dutta) is the loving English teacher who is a lady with gentle heart is someone everyone of us again identify. Similarly there is a strict science teacher Mrs Iyer (played by Divya Jagdale) who is not among favorites. Each teacher has been given adequate screen time as needed in the screenplay. Verma Sir (aka Khadoos) is a well edged character and when one expect a filmy flashback on Verma sir's life the writer keeps it subtle making Verma a symbolic extension of Stanley (and different Stanleys in the society). But then to keep Stanley and Verma in the same plane would be blasphemous. While Stanley is symbolizes Friendship and humanity Verma reflects selfishness within.

The technical department played a crucial role in defining the mood of the theme with fabulous use of camera(DOP by Amol Gole) that zooms in amateurishly to speak about the restlessness with Stanley's character or in the scene where Verma Sir looks at the dabba. The scene reflects Dabba being an important character in the narrative. Deepa Bhatia does a commendable job in the editing department and same goes to the sound designer who specially during the rehearsal sequences uses right beats of guitar telling us about the joy inside Stanley. The music is effective by Hitesh Sonik who uses the right instruments for respective moods added to it awesome lyrics by Amol Gupte again to add on to the cream. Specially "apne andar kahin chupa hai ek Stanley" the lyrics speaks some thousand sentences. And the poems in the film are intelligently human that reminded me of the marvelous poem in another masterpiece film Udaan. (like Udaan I sincerely hope Stanley too wins lots of awards in film festivals and awards)

Amol Gupte avoided filmy clichés and forced emotions while writing the story. He didn't go overboard and in his own lethargic space creates a beautiful world of Stanley and provides a cushion of happiness for the audience. But then suddenly in the flight of happiness he punches hard with a thudding twist that breaks the cushion. Yet the end is optimistic and about hope. The movie didn't come with a sledgehammer and all to tell audience about some problem instead it just tells a story about a sweet child n his problem n how he moulded his life to live in an innocent and optimistic way. A heart warming tale of friendship and belonging that makes "Stanley Ka Dabba" a must watch.

What worked:

• amazing screenplay; sweet and simple yet powerful
• awesome performances by the lead especially two

Gupte What did not work:

• although it's a hard reality, but we as a viewers wanted to end the movie with better optimistic conclusions. However, the ending in itself, is powerful and appreciated.

Final verdict: Recommended

Stanley Ka Dabba - a plain storyline, with the regular Indian school setup and largely unfamiliar cast - is a well-scripted,well-characterized brilliantly directed movie that leaves you with an immediate freshness that rarely many movies can do.

Its the story of Stanley, a 4th standard student in a missionary school. Stanley and many of his friends are the quintessential restless,playful and curious kids. They play,share stories,learn together and yes share their "Dabbas" (lunch boxes)-the central plot of the movie,as you can make out from the title. The story is pretty straight-forward here on. You have the different characters in the teachers. A strict and no-nonsense science teacher, A beautiful and encouraging English teacher. However the teacher who takes the cake(quite literally:) ) is the ever-hungry and mean Hindi teacher(Amol Gupte).

the movie never loses its flavour, displaying with beauty the innocence and puerile nature of the kids and the rhythmic monotony of everyday school that we've all been part of.

Amol Gupte has definitely made one of the best kids-oriented movies in the Indian cinema sphere. Not only is the direction top-notch, he has even acted brilliantly as the insatiably hungry teacher,who shows no shame in eating out of his students' lunch boxes. Special praises to Partho who has done such amazing work as Stanley, and Divya Dutta who just by her sheer screen presence brings in positivity to the frame.

When i saw the title and even until the movie started playing in the theater, I thought this was a children's movie.But soon realized it was a wrong notion. This movie is as much for adults as is for the kids.If you want a break from the regular humdrum of Hindi cinema and want to see meaningful cinema without the preachiness (like Taare Zameen Par) then go watch Stanley Ka Dabba, cause u wont be disappointed. Kudos to Amol gupte for taking the viewers on a nostalgic trip back to school and special mention on how dexterously the message has been woven into the story.