Daayen Ya Baayen (Hindi)
Release Date:
October 29, 2010The film is about of a Quoxotian character, so present in our folk narratives too, of an individual having to live through his follies to understand himself better. Ramesh Majila returns from the city to his small remote village in the Himalayas. Armed with irrepressible enthusiasm, he hopes to be the breath of fresh air the village has been waiting for. But instead his quirky traits and a penchant for catalyzing disaster make him the joke of the village.
In a dramatic turn of events a chance entry into a television contest wins him a swank luxury car elevating Ramesh to heroic status overnight. Adored by children and grudgingly admired by others, he becomes the focal point of the village. However his life spirals into a series of comic conflicts as he struggles to match the rest of his life to the car that adorns his cowshed, undoing himself completely in the process and losing the respect of his most ardent fan, his young son. When the car is stolen, he sets out on a journey to recover something more than his prized possession – his lost dignity.
Daayen ya Baayen’s cinematic value comes from its authenticity, freshness and individuality. It may not be free of its little failings but there is no such thing as a perfect film (or work of art) and neither does Daayen ya Baayen try to be it. This ‘small’ self-effacing film however speaks louder and potently than most ‘big’ films. All we need to do is open our ears to the million little things it has to offer. One of them being, the debutante director Bela Negi, the kind of talent and individual voice that our desperately flailing cinema is thirsting for. Will our producers step forward and do their bit now?