Village Rockstars Review - Tuning Dreams and Life

Suhansid Srikanth

There is a rich kid character in Rima Das's 'Village Rockstars' who owns a cycle. The bunch of other kids who roam around the village with their cardboard musical instruments are jealous of him and his cycle. We see an obvious air of enemity. At one point, when Dhunu (Bhanita Das) touches his cycle she gets slapped by the boy. Later her friends catch him up, make him stand in front of her and threaten to apologize. And the kid do asks for sorry. That's it. He becomes one of them. They are all friends now. This is where I really got invested in the director's understanding of this children. A conflict that would have been an easy clickbait for rich - poor parallel throughout the film is shrunk beautifully into a beginning of a new relationship.

Village Rockstars is primarily about these kids who dream to start a band some day.. but a bit even more about one of them, Dhunu, who dreams to buy a guitar. The character of Dhunu who is hardly 10 years old.. comes across us as a complete woman. She has an alchemistic belief that her trust will make her achieve her dream. She works hard.. climbs trees.. cares about his rugged brother getting diverted.. gives her savings to her mother who is suffering so much on her own! All this doesn't come with a ramping title of feminism! But just like that! The film is easily one of the closest of times an Indian life is blown up cinematically without any makeups and exaggerations!

Rima Das who directed, co-produced, shot and edited the film single handedly doesn't compromise for the many possible melodramas the story offers. The film doesn't have huge blows to hit you. It is almost as life. Even the flood that destroys life every now and then in the zone is handled with a 'this is life and this is how it will be' take. It has no great tragedy yet it profoundly sings a tune of a huge sorrow and simple pleasures! The film that opened with a card that reads - a tribute to the people and place where I come from, pinpoints 'hardwork' as the only hope that those people clinging on to.

The relationship between Dhunu and her mother is a poetry on its own. In the beginning, I thought she is just another rural bound woman who wants her daughter to know her limits.. but at one scene, she screams it out at the villagers who warned her daughter about playing with boys. She is beautifully humane when she hears her daughter telling (what she learned from a stranger, about Yudhistra's question that talks of mother's love which is taller than sky) 'What is taller than the sky?' - 'You!'.

There is a stretch where we see the rituals of puberty for Dhunu. Women visit her.. give advices.. superstitions.. customs.. beliefs.. orders.. patriarchy.. so much happens! And after days, we see her climbing back on the tree. It is her liberation.

We get a beautiful scene where Dhunu asks her mother how did she learn swimming. The 'swimming' here is not just about the act but metaphors for their life as well. She says she had to because she had no other options. Much later, we find that Dhunu has learnt swimming as well. We are cut to the immensely proud and happy reaction of the mother looking at her daughter confidently swimming. Perhaps, it is only after that she takes a decision that the film was hooked on to.

The film doesn't have any score except for the made up songs the kid's band practices. Still.. at the end when Dhunu makes her mumbling tune in that guitar.. it comes up as the most beautiful tune you will ever hear! She is happy! She gets his crowd! She entertains them.. us.. like a true Rockstar!

Bottomline

With many stitched-up moving images and moments, the life that the film carries in Rima Das's 'Village Rockstars' is a work of art that will stay with you forever.