Miles and miles of heart
Ervell E. Menezes

The book Darjeeling Revisited by Shona Adhikari, published by the ITC, recaptures the charm of the hill station that overwhelms visitors with a view of the majestic Kanchenjunga and that of the sunrise from Tiger Hill.

Good literature abounds in stories of orphans looking for love. They make poignant subjects like Oliver Twist or Nicholas Nickelby. In much the same mode is Heidi, a little chit of a girl passed from pillar to post but who because of her kind, caring ways is able to find love, especially in her crusty old grandpa.

We begin our story with the cunning, crafty Aunt Detie (Pauline McLynn) dumping her niece Heidi (Emma Bogler) to her grandpa without as much as a "may I." He lives in the Swiss Alps and is hence known as Uncle Alp (Max von Sydow). The greedy aunt then comes upon a better proposition—making Heidi a companion to a motherless, handicapped girl Clara (Jessica Claridge).

So like the proverbial yoyo, Heidi must adjust to the changing scenario and it is a variety of characters she comes across. There’s the stern, sadistic housekeeper Mrs Rottenmeir (Geraldine Chaplin), Clara’s kind grandma (Diana Rigg) and a plethora of diverse folks from the anonymous maid Tinette (Kellie Shirley) to the kind Sebastian (Del Synott). But they are either snow white or jet black and the women are generally the villains.

May be because the Swiss author Johanna Spyri is a woman, a recluse, who not unlike Uncle Alp, was born near Zurich and her fondness for the mountains finds expression in this rustic, small-town film. Actually cinematically, Heidi is quite weak. But it has heart or as the words of a song go "miles and miles of heart."
Emma Bogler is cute and loving as the heroine and she is well supported by Jessica’s Claridge’s Clara. Heidi’s goat-herd companion Samuel Friend is rather patchy but Geraldine Chaplin is adept as the rotten housekeeper, as much as Diana Rigg oozes sweetness as the grandma and of course Max von Sydow is his indomitable versatile self.

It is also strangely psychological and examines real life characters as seen through the eyes of children. Shades of An Unfinished Life, the story of Jennifer Lopez taking her daughter to see her grandpa Robert Redford, it has an old world charm that is almost infectious, especially welcome in this yuletide season.

The fare is of course predictable, fairy-tale stuff but a welcome change from the modern, special effects, cartoon network and interruptive cell phones.

HOME