February a month for lover’s , a month of red and pink , a month for romance , But 22nd Feb with the release of “KAI PO CHE” made alteration. 22nd feb 2013 would be remembered for its BROMANCE. 

Set in Gujarat in the amidst of earthquake and riots “Kai Po Che” takes Chetan Bhagats enchanting novel   about brotherhood and  converts the written word into mesmerizing world far beyond just a story well told. Kai Po Che  is about the common dream shared by three best friend , Ishaan a District level cricketer but like millions of boys in India , His talent was lost in the maze of politics , he now is hot-headed , wild & reckless . Govind is business minded,   geek and shy who wants to be a successful businessman . Omkar (Omi) is the son of temple priest and nephew of a political leader in right wing of Hindu party  , he is confused and can easily influenced by anyone,he  sees the same dreams as his   friends .  Their dream comes true when they open their small sports shop in the premises of a temple , with the help of Omi’s uncle Bittu mama , in this journey they comes across a god gifted young Muslim  boy  Ali who hits six on every ball, and this god gifted boy gives Ishaan  direction to his life , who now wants coach  Ali so that Ail can achieve the dreams which he wasn’t successful off , Govinds dreams gets grander when their sports shop picks up business,  now he wants  to take their small shop into lavish mall, to accomplish this dream yet again they take help of Omi’s uncle. 

In journey of these three best friends, joined by a fourth is a girl Dolly sister of Ishaan who is secretly involved in relationship with Govind , and has missed out on her periods due to her secret rendezvous with Govind. Adding to Govind and his friends  misery ,  Ahmedabad is hit by earthquake where all their grand dream of a shop in mall crashes into dirt . As the three gather themselves from this setback from natural calamity they are again hit by crude reality of communal riots of Godhra  , where Omi loses his parents and  Ishaan is set out on the streets alone to save his prodigy the young Muslim boy Ali.

Kai Po Che brings life to a world where misfortunes of reality crashes gently but powerfully with  natural and man-made calamities that shakes the very existence of human being , living on the edge where tumbling into the deep valley of human emotion is a real probability  

Although the Abhishek Kapoors “Kai Po Che” is a depiction of “Three Mistake of my life” but not completely , The director exquisitely  weaves together fine embroidery of fresh  sequence , emotions, characters and lives that grips a complete philosophy and culture without surrendering originality of the book. The Screenplay writers Abhishek Kapoor, Chetan Bhagat, Pubali Chaudhuri and Supratik Sen have written  a beautifull Bandhani sari type of screenplay , which emphasis on human bonds , emotions & situation. Songs by Amit Trivedi and Lyrics by Swanand Kirkire  are not the usual type of dance number but these songs reflects the inner voice of the lead characters, Background Score by Hitesh Sonik  camouflage with each emotion and situation easily , this music might remind you of Gustavo Santaolalla’s Babel and 21 grams, Special attention has been paid to detail as the art director by Sonal Sawant  and costume designer Niharika Khan brings out the colours of Gujarat alive on celluloid.  Anay Goswamy camera work portrays the small lanes and beautiful planes of Gujarat magnificently. Not to forget the casting Director Mukesh Chhabar who deserves a pat on his back for assembling such an excellent cast together. Editing by Deepa Bhatia is Crisp and to the point .

Debutant Sushant Singh Rajput effortlessly sinks into the character of Reckless , hot headed & wild  Ishaan , he surely catches your eye. Rajkumar Yadav who plays Govind gives his best performance makes you forget his past work and makes a point that he was born to essay this role. But among the trio Amit Sadh as Omkar aka Omi is the only one who has character graph,  a confused guy who later turns into Hindu radical , Amit Sadh has exceptionally  played the characters with his undertone acting, emoting with his eyes and body language in each scene. Dolly played by Amrita Puri has also done well of a bubbly character. Bitto Mama played by Manoj Kaul  adds friction to the story by his acting skills and last to mention is the young Muslim boy Ali played by Digvijay Deshmukh is another actor to watch for , from is perfect cricketing shots to the accent and body language Digvijay does everything with ease .

Kai Po Che is nearly immaculate, effervesces with lively bonding of three friends and surprises with varied situations and it’s a cinema of coming age. 

In Short 

Kai po Che ma baau saaro Dum che 

****/5

(Note : Those who have read the book might find the film a little slow)