Take a break
Nonika Singh
Your children are not your children./ They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself./ They come through you but not from you,/ And though they are with you yet they belong not to you./ You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
Khalil Gibran told us so many decades ago. Yet over and over, time and again, ambitious parents couldn’t care less about his pearls of wisdom and want all their unfulfilled dreams as well as desires to be realised by their children and continue to push them. And in the process, children not only lose their innocence but also touch with their humane side.
On this simple premise is based this otherwise well-meaning film, which, as the title says, goads parents to take it easy and let children be. Oh, only if the film too had not become overambitious and stated it all simply. Instead, it chooses to burden the narrative with far too many issues. From academic pressure to class divide to the bane of private schools and the politics within, it bites so much that there is very little it can chew well.
No wonder though you nod along as it delivers some home-truths and soak in to the fact that the flipside of competition can only breed jealousy. But as it takes you into the world of two children, Ajay (Yash Ghanekar) and Raghu (Prasad Reddy), from different backgrounds, one upper middles-class and the other lower, with a set of equally overambitious parents, you don’t quite empathise with its characters as you ought to. Certainly the parents here deserve a whack. Especially when a former sportsperson (Raj Zutshi) eggs his son Raghu to run beyond his capacity and Ajay’s father (Joy Sengupta) and mother (Dipannita Sharma) express dismay when their child gets second position in the class. You do relate to the predicament of the kids in question. Some of the children, particularly the little girl who wisely announces that she doesn’t care much about topping the class “for once you top parents expect you to be a topper all the time” are endearing. Prasad Reddy and Yash Ghanekar are sincere as well.
Children’s world we all know is the most beautiful one, unfettered by the vile and the games that adults play. But when adults’ interference in their lives becomes unhealthy, the net result can only be damaging. So, the two bright kids instead of following their dreams are busy tearing each other’s notebooks, putting nails on race tracks for that coveted first position. In short, to earn brownie points from their misguided parents they are on to their dirty tricks. Luckily, the damage control begins well on time and by interval at least the two sparring children seem to have learnt their lesson.
But the games that adults play is a different ballgame altogether! And in this case the chairperson of the school is a scheming woman (Supriya Karnik), who would tolerate no slur on her school’s reputation. So, she would not only jeopardise a young child’s career but even risk his life to feed her ego.
Now this part of the storyline of a successful woman taking her perceived slight so seriously is exaggerated. So are several other elements in the plot, especially the anti-climax, which is overdramatic. Amidst the melee of nonsensical tamasha that most films offer, this one could have stood out as a voice of reason. Alas, it ends up as one of pontification. So much so that not only does it climax with a direct sermon by Vikram Gokhale, who plays an educationist in a part that is almost forced, even little children are often encumbered with heavy dialogues. Yet another case of a small film with its heart in the right place, lost in execution and treatment.
