Movie Review: Ferrari Ki Sawari

Movie Review: Ferrari Ki Sawari

Star Cast: Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Ritwik Sahore, Vidya Balan, Presh Rawal
Director: Rajesh Mapuskar
Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Music Directer: Pritam
Genre: Drama

Description:


It is said Behram Deboo, at the age of 14, was the youngest Ranji Trophy player for Bombay. Given such a promising beginning, his place in history books should have been secured. But things didn’t quite pan out that way. Behram’s best buddy in the cricket club, Dilip, turned out be his archenemy, destroying his chances to make it to India XI, leaving him injured for the rest of his life. For 38 years, Behram has been nursing a grudge against his former friend. Dilip is by now a dapperly dressed top cricket board official. Behram’s just another crabby old man. They finally meet. There really isn’t a dialogue of major significance between them. But just that scene indicates how much two of India’s finest actors, Boman Irani (Behram) and Paresh Rawal (Dilip), can bring to the table, if they merely share screen-space together. On a good day, you could get goose bumps.


Behram’s past life is the background to this film’s main story. Like with all smart screenplays, this aspect makes a relatively late entry and an early exit from the film. You watch the picture primarily for the plot. Behram shares his warm Parsee colony flat with his son Russi and grandson Kayo (Ritvik Sohore, wonderfully at ease for a child actor).

Little Kayo is captain of his junior level cricket club. You can tell why the grand-dad may not be too pleased with this. “If you throw a stone at Dadar station, it’ll land on some cricket captain or the other, what’s the big deal,” Behram says. This is probably be true for most stations in India. Playing cricket well is like being a film-buff in this country. Everybody’s one. There is no big deal. To be fair though, young Kayo does show makings of a genius. His father can see it and is willing to ensure the boy finds the best passage to his dreams. A rare chance to be coached at the Lord’s stadium, Mecca of cricket, could seriously help the little champ.
But the Deboos are a lower middle-class family. The dad, a government clerk at Mumbai’s transport department, can barely afford a cricket bat and sports shoes, let alone Rs 1.5 lakh for a trip to London. He’s still adamant.

Sharman Joshi plays this father’s character. It’s probably his first outing as the only leading man in a movie. Director Rajkumar Hirani spotted him in a little known film called Style (2001), which shows an eye for talent. Aamir Khan was the original choice for this part. Hirani has written the film’s dialogues. You can tell why Hirani and Aamir didn’t work on this film together. It’s nowhere close to 3 Idiots. Yet, like all Hirani movies (Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai), the film exploresthe innate goodness of the human spirit. This sweetly sentimental film remains a warm, light chicken soup for the healthy soul. We love these movies because they give us hope. Something should.
The dad incidentally can make Rs 1.5 lakh overnight, only if he can somehow deliver a Ferrari car for a few hours at a local politician’s son’s wedding. We know who owns a Ferrari in Mumbai – cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, of course. It was gifted to him by the company in 2002. We know this because he had got his customs duty waived for bringing the car into India. This is one of the few controversies surrounding Sachin’s public life. The toughest challenge for a film like this would be to convince us that a regular guy Russi can walk up to Sachin’s heavily guarded Bandra apartment, pick up the keys, and drive away on his Ferrari. Russi does this, and it appears realistic too. This is what good scripts do. We’ve never been to outer space. But we know what it feels like to be there.
Sadly, having overcome its toughest hurdle, the filmmakers find it hard to wrap their heads around the knotty problem of a possible plot thereafter. Or maybe there’s just too much plot. The film feels lengthy because it takes too long to tell a rather simple story, keeping both eyes instead on trying to make us laugh and cry at the same time. Yes, you could feel a slight lump in the throat, and you do smile, but it seems a stretch after a while. I suspect the kids still might have a better time. I find a lot of them laughing away at my theatre. I’m not surprised.

The film is dedicated to India's top-most icon Sachin, who’s inspired millions to remain humble and dream big. This wonderful fable of Russi and son Kayo, though, is actually about Ajit Tendulkar and so many encouraging parents, selfless siblings and generous friends who remain in the shadow of a hero while they create one. It strikes a chord. As the popular Union Bank of India ad puts it, “Your dreams are not yours alone.”