A yummy feast  Director: Amole Gupte
 
Cast: Partho, Amole Gupte; Divya Dutta, Divya Jagdale, Rahul Singh, Raj Zutshi

Rating: Adabba, in the life of a schoolchild, is a magical thing. It beats hunger with packed mother’s love. Stanley Ka Dabba gives us a child rarely seen in Hindi cinema: Stanley is a young boy who is so life-like that he makes you forget, almost, the fake moppets who recite their lines in sing-song, and behave like no kids you and I know.

The delightful flavour that comes off children who are children, not mannequins, is the real triumph of Stanley Ka Dabba. Stanley (Partho) comes to school without a tiffin-box. His classmates (and his teachers) take out theirs during recess, and merry gorging commences. Except when the horrible ‘Hindi sir’ Babubhai Verma (Gupte) comes after the boys, sniffing at the goodies, and scarfing the lot. When he discovers that he is being deprived of the dabbas, he becomes an ogre: Gupte makes him menacing and pathetic at the same time, and completely believable.

There is an underlying grimness to the film that gives it gravitas. There is a reason why Stanley’s dabba status is the way it is, and it is not a pretty one. Gupte makes a skilled, sure-footed directorial debut, not pulling any punches when he confronts us with this reality, and makes you think. Another huge plus: Stanley Ka Dabba doesn’t patronise its viewers, whether they are kids or adults, and like all good films, it caters to both — the talking is straight-up, and completely authentic.