Kai Po Che (2013)

This weekend has been extremely efficient in the catching up with movies department.  Next recommendation is from Meera Darji who is a student at Coventry University and has recently completed her short film Strum for Hope.  You can check out the trailer HERE. In response to my review of 3 Idiots (HERE), she recommended that I see Kai Po Che.

Director: Abhishek Kapoor

Cast: Amit Sadh, Raj Kumar Yadav, Sushant Singh Rajput, Amrita Puri, Digvijay Deshmukh

Kai Po Che is a Bollywood buddy drama about 3 friends who grew up together in India and aspires to build a cricket training academy in hopes of finding potential future cricket players.  However, right off we see that things didn’t go as expected when we enter the movie looking at one of the friends Omi (Amit Sadh) be picked from jail by his friend Govind (Raj Kumar Yadav). It is there we backtrack to 10 years earlier when they first struggle with family connections and bargains to get the financial support for the opening of the academy. With the cricket professional player skills of the third friend Ishant (Sushant Singh Rajput), the maths/economic/business expertise of Govind and the loyal and more well-off Omi, we watch as they put all their efforts.  As the business moves along, struggles come as well.  Govind hopes to expand the business quickly while Ishant puts the futures of his young players in the first place.  However, as they progress with their goals, they hit social, politics and environmental obstacles that end up causing changes to their plans and their friendship.

I’m not an expert at Bollywood movies.  This is only the second one that I’ve seen and its very different from 3 Idiots.  This one is completely a drama.  There is no singing and dancing however, if you have knowledge of Bollywood movies, they tend to have a long run time. However, Kai Po Che never does feel lengthy even with a long run time.  It is definitely a great movie about friendship and struggles.  Believable, heartwarming, victorious and many times heartbreaking as well. Its a life lesson of not only friendship and ambition but family, love, religion and beliefs.

To me, the characters really stood out.  The three friends were a perfect balance for each other as in many good friendships (including my own). Govind was the brains of the operation.  He understood about the technical and financial needs.  During the movie, he is the one that learns to relax a little with a love relationship.  Ishant is the one who is the most knowledgeable about the trade because he used to be a up and coming cricket player and he has a good heart and determination.  Once he sets his goals, nothing can stop him.  That energy puts him as the exact opposite of Govind and they sometimes see things differently.  But, he offsets that with his pure desire to teach new talents and make them reach for higher goals especially with the talented young Ali. Omi is in between and tries to help and settle his friends. He carries traits from both but also does the middle man, however, he also has a negative and thats his personality and the way he fixes situations are sometimes dealt with without fully thinking about it.  Of course, this will lead to consequences.

Another thing that really captured my eyes was the how this movie was shot.  The location was beautiful.  I know close to nothing about India’s geography and I believe this was set in a smaller town and hence the religious conflicts that rose during the movie.  However, the color contrast in the scenes and the mood and the tone was really nice.

Kai Po Che is an amazing Bollywood drama that I highly recommend.  Its worth every minute of your time and it’ll pull you right into how the situation.  Everything they go through feels real and there’s a special connection to each of the characters and their friendship and struggles along the way as they try to reach for their dreams.  I definitely had a great time watching it.   This one really does have a nice story and beautiful setting to complement which makes it even better.

Thanks to Meera for introducing me to another Bollywood movie.  I don’t know too much and wouldn’t know where to start if she hadn’t.  I urge you to check out her blog and her work 🙂

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