A heartfelt denouement of communal indoctrination

Johnson Thomas

THIS film takes place in the 1980s, when technology and particularly the Internet were not prevalent. It underlines a story about two young, impressionable kids whose ideas about faith and science get warped by the influences and conditioning of the adults within their environment. The narrative chooses to depict how belief patterns are constantly questioned and changed as the young ones’ narrow world expands and veers into the country’s volatile socio-political landscape.

Communal violence has been a major issue in India, where clashes between Hindus and Muslims have resulted in death and destruction of families and properties through the years. In ‘Ab Toh Sab Bhagwan Bharose’, Shiladitya Bora’s effort is to unravel the genesis of intolerance that leads to such incidents. By depicting two innocent young boys wading through contradictions arising from religious beliefs and practices opposed to science, Bora makes his salvo against the corruption of innocent minds.

Bhola and Shambhu, two cousins living in a small village, are sent to Panditji for their pre-school education. Obviously, that education is based on Hindu mythology, not science. So, when Bhola’s father returns to the village after working in Mumbai, and gifts the family a black and white TV, things begin to change. When Bhola and Shambu get shifted to a real school, the conflict between what Panditji was teaching them and what they are now learning about science comes to the fore. The profound dissonance created thus only makes them want to harden their stance in favour of what they have previously learnt from Panditji.

Bhola’s uneducated pious mother Radha (a luminous Masumeh) is completely at sea as to how to deal with the questions her son raises and merely shrugs them off gently, while his grandfather (Vinay Pathak) is more interested in furthering his grandson’s education in the art of making and flying kites.

Bhola’s anger and frustration are inevitably coming to a boil. The questions between science and religion have begun tormenting him mercilessly and the adults’ inability to explain it to him only compounds his problem and leads him to violence. Children usually absorb every information they get without being able to process it themselves. That’s the big idea behind Bora’s unique scenario. Scripted by Mohit Chauhan and Sudhakar Nilmani Eklavya, the narrative gradually leads us to a conflagration of ideas.

Bora’s film hopes to caution us to the very nature of influences that are corrupting our cognition. It is an eloquent and sensitively laid out cautionary tale and has enough power to affect you as a viewer. With visually compelling cinematography by Surjodeep Ghosh and snippy editing by Suraj Gunjal lending it pace, the narrative gets you involved, ensnared and affected without much ado.

Convincing performances from Satendra Soni (Bhola) and Sparsh Suman (Shambhu) are at the heart of this experience. Both kids play their scenes out with an unaffected naturalness, which is in fact quite mesmerising. This slice of life experience is powered by warmth, humour and drama and has a surprising final act that is bound to shock you out of complacency.