Directed by: Irfan Kamal
Producer by: Aziz Makani
Starring: Master Shams, Salman, Jaffer, Fayaaz, Baby Almas
Music Dir: Manas Chaudhary
[Watch Songs]

As reported earlier, there is a kind of movie spree this Friday, March 5, 2010. But the movie under review is very different from other releases. This is a movie that even its lead character Shams Patel dare not watch it in a cinema hall! That's why the Censor Board has allowed its exhibition under 'A' category meant for adults only.


 

You may recall that its Shams has already bagged the National Award for Best Child Actor. Besides, Irfan Kamal has directed the movie. It's worth mentioning that the movie has already got acclaim in various film festivals overseas. In fact, 'Thanks Maa' was made before Oscar winning 'Slumdog Millionaire' that swept the world for its focus on Indian kids who survive and succeed despite living in the slums of Mumbai, was first screened at the International Film Festival at Goa in 2008.

However, director Irfan has given 'Thanks Maa', a completely different perspective. The movie is inspired though loosely by Gavin Hood's 'Tsotsi' (2005) which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Since it's meant for adults only, the movie is released at very few multiplexes.

According to the movie's story, a street kid, Muncipalty, who is himself without a mother finds a two-month baby abandoned on the steps of a children's home in Mumbai. He tries his best to hunt for the infant's mother because he does not want him to grow up like himself.

Luckily, other street kids help him in this noble mission. The movie makes you cry as well as laugh; you admire it for a kid showing love towards another like himself and also cry while you see him running on the red light. Shams hides the abandoned child from the cops with the help of his kid friends likes of Dedh Shana, Cutting, Sursuri and Soda, and tries to unite him with his mother.

During this odd journey Shams meets all kinds of people from pimps to hookers to incestuous dads to adulterous husbands to drug addicts to models to distraught mothers to so called pedophile caretakers. Kudos to the director who succeeds in retaining the humane angle by characterizing his protagonists as heroes, prepared for the just and the right cause. You cannot but appreciate the rough but courageous acts of Mumbai kids.

The movie is an all-round success inasmuch the performances of kids in particular and other actors in general, is worth praise. Shams have already won the National Award for his excellent act as Municipalty. Its dialogues though rough at times but just true, are hard hitting.

Director Irfan Kamal and Vishal Vijay Kumar have handled the story of slum children, especially the abandoned kids, excellently well. Ajay Vincent as cinematographer has left no stone unturned in beautifully capturing the locations of Mumbai in all respects.